Podcasts by The Inquiry

Is Paris ready for the 2024 Olympics? from 2023-12-07T08:06

In less than a year, France will play host to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The opening ceremony will be played out along the River Seine in the nation’s capital city Paris. The Seine is als...

Have we reached a turning point with migraine medication? from 2023-11-30T08:06

Around 1 billion people around the world suffer from a mysterious neurological condition called migraine. Far more than just a headache, migraine is abnormal processing of the world around us th...

Why is Bangladesh in turmoil? from 2023-11-23T08:37

Bangladesh is set to hold parliamentary elections next January. But only time will tell whether there will be real change at the top or whether the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her A...

Is the war in Ukraine at a stalemate? from 2023-11-16T08:06

The head of Ukraine’s armed forces, General Zaluzhny, has a frank take on his country’s conflict with Russia: "Just like in the First World War, we have reached the level of technology that puts...

What went wrong with Australia’s Indigenous call for a voice? from 2023-11-09T08:06

When the Referendum to give Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders greater political rights was first announced, it was well received, with the early polls suggesting that more than ...

What is the Human Cell Atlas? from 2023-11-02T08:06

The Human Cell Atlas is a project that has 3000 researchers in over 94 countries working to collect samples of every single cell in the human body.

The idea is that an interactive map of t...

What can US diplomacy achieve in the Middle East? from 2023-10-26T09:40

After violence erupted between Hamas and Israel, President Biden flew to Tel Aviv to offer his ‘staunch’ ally US support.

In a very public embrace of Israel, he reinforced a relationship ...

Is peace in the Arctic melting? from 2023-10-19T07:06

Climate change and the war in Ukraine is transforming the geopolitics of the Arctic.

Melting ice opens up the possibility of new trade routes making the region more valuable.

Ten...

Can Europe solve its migrant crisis? from 2023-10-12T07:06

Europe’s migration crisis began back in 2015, with the arrival of over a million refugees, the majority from the war in Syria. Many thousands more from different countries have since sought re...

Why can’t Germany build enough homes? from 2023-10-05T07:06

The German government was elected with a plan to build 400,000 new homes a year – but it fell short last year by over 100,000. The country’s house building industry is in crisis, with hundreds ...

Can China and India fix their relationship? from 2023-09-28T07:06

At the recent BRICS economic summit in South Africa, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping had a rare face-to-face meeting. For years these two world powers have ...

Why is life expectancy falling in America? from 2023-09-21T07:06

The life expectancy of Americans has fallen in recent years after a long period when it had been increasing. There are a number of factors which contribute to the fall. The Covid pandemic, with...

What’s next for Palestinian leadership? from 2023-09-14T07:06

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is ageing and his ruling Fatah party is deeply unpopular. There have been protests against him and the Palestinian Authority. Many Palestinians feel the...

What’s wrong with our guts? from 2023-09-07T07:06

How much do you think about your gut? Are you taking a probiotic or prebiotic? If so, you’re not alone as globally we spend billions of dollars on soothing our stomachs.

Our guts do so...

Are we alone in the universe? from 2023-08-31T07:30

In July 2023 a group of lawmakers in the US held a session to explore evidence of extra-terrestrial life. The evidence included the famous Tic Tac videos of mysterious objects flying through the...

Is work from home working? from 2023-08-24T07:30

Working from home became the norm for millions of us around the globe during the Covid-19 pandemic, but now three years on some major employers are insisting on their employees returning to the ...

Can Brazil’s indigenous population save the Amazon? from 2023-08-17T07:30

About 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil and it is home to more than 300 indigenous groups. But for centuries both the rainforest and its indigenous inhabitants have been under th...

Can we stop oil? from 2023-08-10T07:30

Environmental activists in the UK have disrupted high profile sporting events in an effort to persuade the government to stop oil development. How would stopping oil production impact those cou...

Why is South Africa collapsing? from 2023-08-03T07:30

South Africa once had the most abundant and cheap electricity on the continent. Now, it is experiencing power blackouts. It’s called loadshedding, the process by which the power company Eskom oc...

Are weight loss drugs the answer to obesity? from 2023-07-27T07:30

In June 2023 the British government announced a £40 million pound pilot scheme to increase access to specialist weight management services in England -It reads “Using the latest drugs to support...

Is Venezuela a failed state? from 2023-07-20T07:30

Venezuela is the country with the largest oil deposits, yet 3 in every 4 Venezuelan lives in extreme poverty. More than 7 million people are recorded as having left the country since 2015 in s...

How can we stop wildfires? from 2023-07-13T07:30

Canada is in the grip of the worst wildfires in recorded history. Blazes are devouring millions of acres of forest, forcing more than a hundred thousand people from their homes. Toxic smoke ha...

Is the global nuclear threat level rising? from 2023-07-06T07:30

Following the Wagner mutiny in Russia, and with fighting intensifying as Ukraine presses on with its counter-offensive, there’s concern about increasing instability around potential use of nucle...

Can seawater save Venice from flooding? from 2023-06-29T07:30

The medieval city of Venice is situated in the heart of a lagoon on the coast of northeast Italy. It was built on a large area of low-lying marshland. A system of wooden poles driven into the s...

Who will be the next Prime Minister of Thailand? from 2023-06-22T07:30

Thailand’s recent elections produced a shock result. A popular progressive party called Move Forward won the most seats. But the leader of the government has not yet been named as the country ...

Is it Endgame for the Marvel Cinematic Universe? from 2023-06-15T07:30

In 2009 Disney bought Marvel studios and helped transform the company into a movie making powerhouse that brought a new world of superhero stories to the silver screen, called The Marvel Cinemat...

Will hydrogen solve our energy needs? from 2023-06-08T07:30

A fifteen minute test flight of a plane fuelled only by hydrogen was successfully completed over recent months. Trucks are already running on the fuel in the US, as are trains in Canada and the ...

Can Ron DeSantis win the White House? from 2023-06-01T07:30

Ron DeSantis, the governor of the US State of Florida has now declared his republican nomination for the 2024 Presidential Election. He’s the latest in a line of republican contenders keen to ...

Why are there millions of empty houses in Japan? from 2023-05-25T07:30

Official figures report that there are more than eight million houses standing empty across Japan, the reality could be even higher. One of the highest concentrations of empty houses or ‘Akiya’...

Is Africa’s Great Green Wall failing? from 2023-05-18T07:30

The Great Green Wall is one of the most ambitious environmental projects ever conceived, creating a vast belt of vegetation spanning Africa by 2030; from Senegal on the Atlantic to Djibouti on t...

What does this presidential election mean for Turkey’s future? from 2023-05-11T07:30

For the first time in his 20 years in power Erdogan is facing serious pressure - and the choice voters make in this month’s presidential election could define Turkey’s destiny for decades.

Why is Israel in turmoil? from 2023-05-04T07:30

Last November Israel elected its most far right government in its 75 year history. Months of protests followed over its plans for reform of the judicial system.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s new co...

Will AI decide America’s next president? from 2023-04-27T07:30

Next year Americans will go to the polls to choose their next president. For many, the race has already begun. Digital electioneering in US elections has been steadily developing over the last 1...

Will Europe’s young workers have to pay more for the old? from 2023-04-20T17:57

Recent protests in France oppose plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

The demonstrations stem from a government plan so people would work -and pay into the pension system - f...

Will we ever run out of cloud storage? from 2023-04-13T07:30

Recent cloud storage outages have exposed just how the modern world is reliant on remote servers to hold data that runs everything from websites, to digital operating systems and businesses. <...

What is Mohammed bin Salman’s vision for Saudi Arabia? from 2023-04-06T07:30

Saudi Arabia has entered into a new era of relations with its long time rival, Iran. It’s a deal that has the potential to be very significant for the Middle East region.

It’s part of a...

Why are Warhol’s Prince works before the US Supreme Court? from 2023-03-30T07:30

In 1981, the rock photographer Lynn Goldsmith did a photoshoot with an up-and-coming singer songwriter called Prince. A few years later, he became a superstar, and she licenced one of her photos...

Will Putin be prosecuted for war crimes in Ukraine? from 2023-03-23T08:30

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

He is accused of forcibly deporting children from Uk...

Why are so many people dying on America’s roads? from 2023-03-16T08:30

Deaths on American roads are at a 20 year high. More than 46,000 people lost their lives in vehicle collisions last year alone. That’s up a tenth on the year before and the numbers are on a pa...

Can Peru sort out its political problems? from 2023-03-09T08:30

On the 7th December 2022, President Pedro Castillo attempted to dissolve Peru's Congress. His attempted self-coup ended almost as quickly as it began, having been denounced by his own party, the...

Will there be a united Ireland? from 2023-03-02T08:30

Just over 100 years ago the island of Ireland was partitioned. It created an independent catholic free state in the South and a majority protestant one in the northeast called Northern Ireland ...

What is Putin’s plan now for Ukraine? from 2023-02-23T08:30

It’s a year since President Putin launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia currently holds areas in the South and East of Ukraine including Donetsk and Luhansk but the Ukrainian ...

Is everything okay at Facebook? from 2023-02-16T08:30

The owner of Facebook - Meta - is reinstating Donald Trump’s account after a two-year suspension. The former US president was suspended from Facebook and Instagram after his posts were deemed to...

Can Nigeria’s next president fix its problems? from 2023-02-09T08:30

On 25 February, Nigerians go to the ballot box to vote for their next president. For the first time in a long time, the Incumbent president will not be contesting the elections – having already ...

Can the Taliban tackle Afghanistan’s terror problem? from 2023-02-02T08:30

Following the exit of US forces in 2021, the Taliban rolled back into power almost immediately. They promised that they had learnt from previous mistakes and did not want to minimalize the role ...

Will international support for Ukraine last? from 2023-01-26T08:30

Since the start of the war, Ukraine has received more than €115 billion in military, financial and humanitarian aid from countries around the world. Now that the pendulum has swung, and the ba...

Are we running out of microchips? from 2023-01-19T08:30

The world is becoming increasingly dependent on advanced microchips to power its high-end technology, However, they are made by just one company in Taiwan, TSMC, meaning the rest of the world is...

Can microbes feed the world? from 2023-01-12T08:30

A campaign called “ReBoot Food” was launched at the COP27 climate change conference in Egypt, to ask world governments to support a technology called precision fermentation.

They claim it...

Should other countries adopt Canada's immigration model? from 2023-01-05T08:30

Canada is just one of a number of countries with an ageing population and shrinking workforce. The second largest in the world in terms of land mass, and with a population of just 36 million, Ca...

Who is the true Zulu King? from 2022-12-22T08:30

Misuzulu ka Zwelithini was officially crowned King of the Zulu Nation in October after the death of his father. King Zwelithini died of Covid complications after ruling for fifty years.

Will rising sea levels wipe countries off the map? from 2022-12-08T08:30

Small island nations are facing an existential threat. It’s predicted that by 2100, Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Maldives and many others will be underwater, because of rising sea levels and increasing...

Can digital currency replace the cash system? from 2022-12-01T08:30

We use digital currency every day whenever we use a credit card, bank online or shop for goods on the internet. We can use our phones as money and transfer cash to family and friends simply by ...

Is it too late to avoid famine in Somalia? from 2022-11-24T08:30

Somalia is in a state of drought following four failed rainy seasons, and a fifth predicted, with aid agencies declaring the country is in a state of famine. Despite this, the government has ye...

Can a country live on renewable energy alone? from 2022-11-17T08:30

The International Energy Agency says that the world is in the middle of the first global energy crisis. The price of natural gas has increased almost five-fold since the summer of 2020, and the ...

Will computers put managers out of work? from 2022-11-10T08:30

When we shop online, we don’t often think about what goes on behind the scenes. Clicking “pay now”, sets in motion a slick, computer-controlled chain of events, that ends with a parcel arriving ...

Can Europe give up Russian gas? from 2022-04-28T07:30

Since the invasion of Ukraine, European countries have sought alternatives to Russian gas. There are different options. Piped gas from countries such as Algeria and Libya, or liquid natural gas fr...

Why did Sri Lanka’s organic farming dream fail? from 2022-04-21T17:30

In 2021 the president of Sri Lanka announced a total ban on chemical fertilizer and pesticides. The country’s farms were going to go fully organic. Health concerns were given as a reason, but in...

Can we create a universal Covid vaccine? from 2022-04-14T07:30

Can scientists develop a vaccine which can combat the coronavirus and all its variants? There have been three lethal outbreaks caused by coronaviruses this century: SARS in 2002, MERS in 2012 and...

Are drones the future of warfare? from 2022-04-07T07:30

Throughout history nations have competed to exert the latest military developments over their enemies, always with the goal of inflicting maximum damage on enemy soldiers whilst preserving their ow...

Can Putin be prosecuted for war crimes? from 2022-03-31T07:30

On Wednesday 23 March the US administration declared that Russian troops had committed war crimes in Ukraine. It claims to have evidence showing numerous deliberate attacks on civilians. An unprec...

Why is Russia’s invasion plan failing? from 2022-03-24T08:30

Russia's military dwarfs Ukraine's by comparison, so it was expected that Ukraine would fall under Russian occupation quickly. One month later and Russia have made very little progress and Kyiv, th...

Who are the Wagner Group, and why are they in Ukraine? from 2022-03-17T08:30

According to media reports, Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has survived two assassination attempts from the band of mercenaries known as the Wagner Group. Their ruthlessness has earned th...

Does Putin’s view of history explain why he invaded Ukraine? from 2022-03-10T08:30

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has offered historical justification for his invasion of Ukraine by claiming its lands have long been part of Russia. The history of Russia and Ukraine may be int...

Will sanctions stop Russia in Ukraine? from 2022-03-03T08:30

As economic sanctions are applied to Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, will they help force it to change course? While they are credited with helping end apartheid in South Africa they have had ...

What’s happened to the left in France? from 2022-02-24T08:30

Left wing political parties in France have lost considerable popular support in the last decade. Do they have a future with so many of their voters defecting to president Macron? With Charmaine ...

What will end the war in Yemen? from 2022-02-17T08:30

One of the world's largest humanitarian crises plagues the people of Yemen who have endured nearly eight years of civil conflict in the country. Over half the population struggles to access food, p...

Why have military coups returned to West Africa? from 2022-02-10T08:30

Elected governments have been overthrown by military coups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea. Each has some popular support as people grow frustrated with their political elites. But will military ...

Do we have enough lithium to power the future? from 2022-02-03T08:30

Can we meet the soaring demand for lithium, a vital metal for electric cars and green energy? Mining is concentrated in a limited number of countries such as Australia and Chile. And with China dom...

Is Turkey heading for an economic meltdown? from 2022-01-27T08:30

Turkey is suffering from an economic crisis with rampant inflation and a weakening lira. At the same time, there is a refusal by the central bank to raise interest rates. With elections due to be ...

What’s going on in Kazakhstan? from 2022-01-20T08:30

What has caused the worst unrest and political infighting in Kazakhstan’s recent history? Scores of deaths and thousands of arrests prompted the summoning of foreign troops. An elderly political ...

Are we heading for space wars? from 2022-01-13T02:30

Would conflict on the ground between majors powers now inevitably spill over into space? Experts believe we rely so much on technology in orbit that satellites will become targets. Russia blowing...

Can we get drugs out of prisons? from 2022-01-06T02:30

Keeping drugs out of prisons seems like an impossible task. Tanya Beckett asks four experts if it can be done and how prisoners can be helped to overcome their addictions. Contributors:Stuart J....

How will Afghanistan survive the winter? from 2021-12-23T02:30

How will the 23 million Afghans who need food assistance get through the winter? The country has lost funding from Western donors and government salaries have not been paid. The Taliban are divide...

Should we be worried about the return of inflation? from 2021-12-16T08:30

As prices rise across the world, Tanya Beckett asks if this is a temporary blip owing to the pandemic, or a longer lasting return of inflation. Should we be worried and should policy makers be more...

How will we cope with the Omicron variant? from 2021-12-09T11:33

What are the possible implications as the Omicron variant spreads around the world? Experts from South Africa, the US and Europe assess the potential dangers and the remedies available. With Tanya ...

Are the US Democrats in big trouble? from 2021-12-02T08:30

When voters in Virginia elected a Republican as Governor they sent a wake-up call to President Biden and the Democrats. The handling of the pandemic and rising prices are harming the party’s standi...

Why aren’t countries doing more to stop climate change? from 2021-11-25T08:30

What progress are China, India, Africa, Europe and the US making to limit climate change? Some experts believe they should they go at different paces to reflect their carbon footprints and develop...

What is the metaverse and why is Facebook so obsessed with it? from 2021-11-18T08:30

As Facebook rebrands itself as Meta, which vision of the so-called metaverse will we adopt in the future? Will one firm dominate or will control be decentralized? And what dangers and opportunitie...

What are hypersonic missiles and why do they matter? from 2021-11-11T08:30

America, China and Russia are engaged in a new arms race, spending billions to develop new missile technology, but how different are these hypersonic missiles from what has gone before? And as coun...

Why are we seeing global shortages? from 2021-11-04T08:30

Empty shelves are becoming commonplace. And prices are rising. Charmaine Cozier explores the role that the pandemic, and a sudden demand explosion, have had on supply chains. Around the world work...

Do climate conferences make a difference? from 2021-10-28T07:30

COP 26 is just around the corner and expectations are high that nations commit to reduce CO2 emissions. Global temperature rises are set to exceed levels at which things could get much worse and ...

Are we running out of water? from 2021-10-21T07:30

We cannot survive without water. But for a quarter of the world’s population, there just isn’t enough. The most vulnerable are those with the least access, and even if there is enough, it’s often i...

Is Britain paying the price for its green energy push? from 2021-10-14T07:30

Energy prices are spiking in the UK, as gas prices soar and wind turbines stop spinning. The UK's shift to green energy is the envy of the world, but Tanya Beckett asks if there is a lesson for oth...

Is China’s economy in trouble? from 2021-10-07T07:30

For decades China's economic growth has been the envy of the western world. But current signs suggest all is not well. Regulations brought in by government to curb businesses reliance on debt have ...

Is Brazil heading for a constitutional crisis? from 2021-09-30T07:30

The President of Brazil is reluctant to play by the rules. Elections are due next year and Bolsonaro is increasingly at loggerheads with his country’s democratic system. Between battles with the ...

Will America ban abortion? from 2021-09-23T07:30

A restriction on abortion from as early as six weeks into pregnancy is now law in Texas. The state has also outsourced enforcing it to private citizens who can get up to $10,000 if they sue those w...

Should the knowledge needed to make the Covid-19 vaccines be freely available to all? from 2021-09-16T07:29

In May, the Biden administration surprised the world by saying it would not object on an intellectual property waiver for Covid-19 vaccines. America has been a staunch defender of patent protec...

Did America get its response to the attacks of 9/11 right? from 2021-09-09T07:06

In the wake of the attacks of 9/11, the United States took several measures at home and abroad to prevent such atrocities happening on its soil again. Twenty years later and after two bitter wars i...

Which president is most responsible for the failure in Afghanistan? from 2021-09-02T07:30

As US-led troops withdraw after 20 years, the Taliban have made a swift return to power. Four presidents have overseen the war in Afghanistan - with four different approaches.Charmaine Cozier ask...

Is our fascination with sharks bad for them? from 2021-08-26T07:30

Sharks are mysterious and ancient creatures. They're also a threat. Yet , the once great killers now face what might be their biggest threat – us. From monster killers of the sea to endangered sp...

Are our phones spying on us? from 2021-08-19T01:30

A leaked list of thousands of phone numbers - including Presidents and activists - has drawn attention to spyware. It’s supposed to stop terrorists but are our devices safe anymore? Charmaine Co...

Can we run the world on electricity? from 2021-08-12T15:18

The target for many countries around the world is to reach net zero emissions within the next few decades. That means a dramatic move away from fossil fuels like oil, coal and gas. For some the ans...

What’s behind the recent rioting in South Africa? from 2021-08-05T01:30

The jailing of former South African president Jacob Zuma sparked huge unrest in the country, but was there more behind the riots than the fact of his imprisonment? While some believe the riots wer...

Why was the president of Haiti assassinated? from 2021-07-29T01:30

Haiti was the first Caribbean country to gain its independence after a successful revolt against slavery. But the country has been troubled ever since, suffering dictatorships, coups and natural di...

Can China raise its birth rate? from 2021-07-22T01:30

China’s decades-long One Child Policy has led to a low birth rate, and a shrinking workforce. It has also been placing a heavy burden on the younger generations who will have to support two parent...

Why did so many indigenous children die in Canada’s residential schools? from 2021-07-15T02:00

The recent discoveries of unmarked graves at the sites of so-called Indian Residential Schools has put Canada’s treatment of its indigenous peoples back under the spotlight. For more than a centur...

Is Nigeria becoming impossible to govern? from 2021-07-08T07:30

The kidnapping of at least 140 schoolchildren in the north-west of Nigeria is the latest crime to shake a country already struggling to contain militants in the north and separatists in the south. ...

Can we make the super-rich pay more tax? from 2021-07-01T07:30

Rich people are often able to pay little or no tax compared to their wealth because of the way the system works. In recent years, many have called for changes and reforms so that instead of income...

Are the Tokyo Olympic games in trouble? from 2021-06-24T07:30

In just under a month’s time Japan’s capital city Tokyo will host the 32nd Olympic Games. They were due to take place last year but were delayed because of the pandemic.But even 12 months later t...

Could Covid-19 have come from a lab leak? from 2021-06-17T07:30

For the last year discussions about the origins of Covid-19 have divided people all over the world. Some say it came from nature and others believe it could have escaped from a lab. The idea of a l...

Belarus: Can President Lukashenko be overthrown? from 2021-06-10T07:30

Over his 26 years in power, Belarus’s president Alexander Lukashenko has taken more and more control. He has detained protesters and tortured political opponents for years. He is emboldened by hi...

Do we need more nuclear power to help deal with climate change? from 2021-06-03T07:30

In November 2021, Britain will host the next UN Climate Change Conference, otherwise known as COP 26. Some 200 countries will come together to try to speed up attempts to make the world carbon neut...

What are NFTs and are they really the next big thing? from 2021-05-27T07:30

In 2005 a photo of four-year-old Zoë Roth standing in front of a burning house went viral on the internet. It became a meme known as “disaster girl”. In April 2021, the image sold for $473,000 as a...

Why are murder rates in Chicago so high? from 2021-05-20T07:30

History and geography have conspired to give the city of Chicago an unenviable reputation for guns and gangs, but what will it take to bring the murder rate, which rose 55 per cent last year, down?...

Will the Taliban rule Afghanistan again? from 2021-05-13T07:30

In the afternoon of Saturday 8th May in the Afghan capital of Kabul, just a few days before the end of Ramadan, students from the Syed Al-Shahda girls school were starting to leave for the day. Wit...

Is peace under threat in Northern Ireland? from 2021-05-07T11:50

It was on Good Friday, 2nd of April 2021, that rioting erupted in a corner of Northern Ireland’s vibrant capital Belfast. In days, violence spread. It was on a scale that hadn’t been seen for years...

Covid: What went wrong in India? from 2021-04-29T07:30

Earlier this year, India’s ruling party was declaring victory in the fight against Covid-19. Some two months on, India set a global record for the highest number of cases recorded in a single count...

Is the legal cannabis business about to go global? from 2021-04-22T07:30

Changes to the laws governing cannabis use are happening around the world. The number of States in the USA legalising cannabis is increasing rapidly. Uruguay and Canada have legalised it already, a...

Is Africa the new power base for the Islamic State group? from 2021-04-15T07:30

Since Islamic State’s hold on Iraq and Syria has weakened in recent years the group has sought to expand into new territories, including Africa. IS insurgents have reportedly killed thousands, inc...

Why has Peru had such a bad pandemic? from 2021-04-08T07:30

Peru has suffered one of the highest excess death levels in the world. The government failed to take account of the structure of society and the needs of its people in its response to the pandemic....

How will the concussion issue affect the future of sport? from 2021-04-01T07:30

Concussion is now a powder-keg issue in world sport, as concerns deepen about the potential links to brain disease. The long-term effects of careers spent making and taking heavy tackles are being...

Are ‘killer robots’ the future of warfare? from 2021-03-25T02:30

Could humans ever trust machines with the power to make life or death decisions on the battlefield? And have we already begun to? Advances in artificial intelligence are slowly creeping into almo...

Why do Italy’s governments keep collapsing? from 2021-03-18T02:30

After the government of Giuseppe Conte collapsed amid an economic and public health crisis, Mario Draghi has formed Italy’s 65th administration in 73 years. So what are the long-term causes of Ital...

Is Antifa the threat it’s made out to be? from 2021-03-11T02:30

Vivid and sometimes wild claims about the antifascist group Antifa have been circulating in America. Some say that the group participates in widespread violence, while others have argued that it is...

Why did Alexei Navalny return to Russia? from 2021-03-04T02:30

After surviving an assassination attempt, the opposition leader returned to Russia - and was immediately arrested and jailed. What does he have to gain by returning home, and can he still lead an...

What is the future for Myanmar? from 2021-02-25T02:30

As protests continue in Myanmar against the generals who staged a military coup, and with Aung San Su Kyi under house arrest and facing criminal charges, has the country lost all prospects for a de...

Can we solve our space junk problem? from 2021-02-18T02:30

The world is entering a new space race but every new satellite launched into Earth’s orbit runs the risk of colliding with one of the millions of pieces of space junk left behind by previous missio...

How did Europe fall behind in the vaccine race? from 2021-02-11T02:30

On June the 12th of last year the 27 health ministers of the European union signed off on a plan to buy vaccines on behalf of all the EU’s member countries. The aim was to secure enough doses to i...

Will QAnon survive? from 2021-02-04T02:30

With President Trump no longer in office and a clampdown by social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, what is the future for the QAnon conspiracy theory? It’s had a considerable following f...

Is online censorship going too far? from 2021-01-28T02:30

Donald Trump has moved out of the White House, he’s been banned from Twitter and suspended from Snapchat, Facebook and YouTube. Parler, a twitter alternative for conservatives, went offline after A...

Why do the Indian farmer protests matter? from 2021-01-21T02:30

It has been called the world’s biggest protest. In November 2020, thousands of farmers marched to New Delhi to protest against new laws that the Indian government says will modernise farming. The f...

Why are boys academically underperforming? from 2020-12-31T08:06

There’s a problem in education – and it’s probably not what you expect. Around the world, from schools to universities, boys are trailing girls in their academic performance. It’s a complex problem...

Has the time come for a European Super League? from 2020-12-17T08:06

The idea of a breakaway football league for Europe’s elite clubs has been discussed for decades. It hasn’t happened yet, but could that be about to change?Industry experts say officials from the c...

Has French secularism gone too far? from 2020-12-10T09:00

The French brand of secularism - laïcité - is central to the country’s national identity. It requires that public spaces – whether state classrooms, workplaces or ministries - be free of religion....

Why is Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize winner bombing his own country? from 2020-12-03T08:30

In Ethiopia, a political battle has sparked a bloody conflict. Federal Forces have engaged in combat with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front - or TPLF.Hundreds have reportedly been killed and te...

Do we have a vaccine to end the pandemic? from 2020-11-26T14:56

Test results from coronavirus vaccines are fast emerging, fuelling hopes that the end of the pandemic is in sight. But are countries ready to share the vaccine fairly? Global efforts to coordinate ...

Will the EndSARS protest change Nigeria? from 2020-11-12T08:06

For nearly two weeks last month, angry young Nigerians took to the streets in their tens of thousands, blocking major roads in cities across Africa's most populous nation. What began as a protest a...

Why are Thai students risking jail to call for reform of the monarchy? from 2020-11-05T18:18

Pro-democracy protests have happened before in Thailand, but there’s something new about the latest one - the king is being publicly criticised. It’s a serious criminal offence to do that. This wee...

Can President Trump still win the US presidential election? from 2020-10-29T18:16

National polls ahead of the US presidential election suggest a clear win for challenger Joe Biden. But could they be getting it wrong as they did four years ago? In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the po...

How has Trump changed America’s relationship with the world? from 2020-10-23T15:01

When he was elected, President Trump promised to put ‘America First’, but how has he governed? Charmaine Cozier looks at trade, diplomacy, defence and the environment to examine the results of fo...

Should we learn to live with Covid? from 2020-10-15T07:30

As new students start at universities in many countries around the world, governments are grappling with how to contain a second wave of Coronavirus. Already many universities have put lectures onl...

Are shares in Elon Musk’s Tesla vastly overvalued? from 2020-10-08T07:30

In 2018, the electric car maker, Tesla, was struggling to get the Model 3 electric vehicle off the production line. Its CEO, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, was working up to 22 hours a day on the fa...

Is Kanye West really running for US president? from 2020-10-01T07:30

In July, billionaire musician Kanye West announces on Twitter that he’s standing as a candidate in November’s US presidential election. After a scramble to meet the registration deadlines, his nam...

Will the US presidential debates change the course of the election? from 2020-09-24T07:30

On the 29th September the two US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden will take part in the first of three 90-minute live televised debates ahead of the presidential election in Novem...

Can the world stop online fraud? from 2020-09-17T07:30

Online fraud takes many forms, from deceptive e-mails and websites which trick us into paying money to the wrong bank account, to romance scams and malicious software copying our bank and credit ca...

Will votes be safe in the US presidential election? from 2020-09-10T07:30

President Trump says opening up November’s election to more postal voting will make it more vulnerable to fraud and election interference. Many more Americans are expected to avoid going in person ...

What is “Obamagate?” from 2020-09-03T07:30

A maverick American general, a call to the Russian ambassador and allegations of spying on Donald Trump’s incoming administration. But what exactly is “Obamagate” and what impact might it have on t...

What’s gone wrong in Lebanon? from 2020-08-27T07:30

The massive explosion that tore through Beirut on August 4th left more than 200 people dead, 6,000 injured, and as many as 300,000 homeless. The explosion was caused by a fire that ignited 2,750 to...

How close are we to a vaccine for Covid-19? from 2020-08-20T07:30

Researchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 170 candidate vaccines now in development. Most vaccines take years of testing and additional time to p...

Will America’s 'Big Tech' firms be reined in? from 2020-08-13T07:30

US lawmakers are deciding whether to act against the country’s powerful tech giants. Some believe the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple are stifling competition. The companies have made h...

Will the pandemic get worse in the winter? from 2020-08-06T07:30

Winter is coming in the northern hemisphere and traditionally it is time for colds and flu. This has raised fears that coronavirus will surge when the seasons change, possibly leading to a second w...

Why isn’t the world doing more to help the Uighurs? from 2020-07-30T15:25

With an estimated million Uighurs in detention camps, China has used a variety of means to successfully stifle world criticism. They include its economic muscle, political alliances with like-min...

Should Joe Biden stay in the basement? from 2020-07-23T07:30

The presidential opposition candidate Joe Biden has barely emerged from his home since America’s lockdown at the end of March. But polls suggest that the low-key strategy is working in his favour –...

Is China versus India the most important rivalry of the 21st century? from 2020-07-16T07:45

The recent border clash between China and India is seen as a watershed moment in the two nuclear nations’ relationship. How will its repercussions affect Asia, and the rest of the world? Contribu...

Why are Covid cases rising in the US? from 2020-07-09T07:30

Why are Covid cases dramatically increasing in some U.S. states, where rates had been low? The number of new coronavirus infections in a single day has passed fifty five thousand. Is it because of ...

What does Putin want? from 2020-07-02T08:00

President Vladimir Putin has been in power for 20 years. The Russian people have been voting on a change to the constitution that could keep him in the Kremlin until 2036. While world leaders and ...

Why do we care about statues? from 2020-06-25T07:30

The killing of African American George Floyd ignited anti-racist protests around the world - many centred on statues associated with colonialism and slavery. Why do these figures of bronze and ston...

How will Hollywood respond to the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements? from 2020-06-18T07:30

Why is the movie business having trouble representing the world’s population on and behind the big screen? A rising share of the U.S. population are black, more than half of the demographic are fem...

Will Covid-19 change cities? from 2020-06-11T01:30

From the bubonic plague and cholera to tuberculosis, pandemics have changed the ways cities have been designed and built. The coronavirus has been no different: with cities all over the world on lo...

Why do US cops keep killing unarmed black men? from 2020-06-03T01:30

Why is George Floyd the latest in a long line of unarmed black men killed by US police? Studies show black men are three times more likely to be killed by police in America than white people. Wit...

How far can the Chinese government be blamed for Covid-19? from 2020-05-28T01:30

Ever since a mysterious virus was reported in December 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the world has been watching China. Silenced whistleblowers, unregulated wildlife trade in wet markets, lim...

How will the world pay for Covid-19? from 2020-05-21T01:30

As governments spend huge sums to get through the coronavirus crisis, how will they fund it all? Slash spending, raise taxes or just accept debt is here to stay? With Tanya Beckett.(Photo: Varie...

Why does Germany have such a low number of deaths from Covid-19? from 2020-05-14T02:00

To date, 7500 people have lost their lives in Germany in a population of 80 million. Other comparably sized European countries like the UK, France, Italy and Spain – some with smaller populations ...

Why are so many ethnic minorities dying in the UK and US? from 2020-05-07T01:30

In news reports and newspapers, pictures of British healthcare workers who have lost their lives to Covid-19 sit side by side. And if you look at those faces one thing stands out clearly. Of the 1...

Why are people attacking 5G mobile phone masts? from 2020-04-30T01:30

Tanya Beckett looks at 5G and examines why it’s become the centre of conspiracy theories linking it to the coronavirus and others. What is it about the latest mobile technology which some find so ...

How do we come out of the lockdown? from 2020-04-23T01:30

As some nations begin to tentatively lift their lockdowns, Tanya Beckett asks how best this can be done. What lessons, if any, can we learn from past pandemics? How do states make the decision, jug...

How do you help people stay rational in a pandemic? from 2020-04-16T01:30

Last month, everyday supermarket items turned into valuable and vanishing commodities overnight – none more so than toilet paper. There are now billions of us around the world living in lockdown co...

Can Africa cope with coronavirus? from 2020-04-09T01:30

How will Africa deal with Covid-19? It began in China then reached the Middle East, Europe and the United States, now Africa is bracing itself for a surge in coronavirus cases. But how will the con...

Why is it taking so long to develop a Covid-19 vaccine? from 2020-04-02T02:00

The race is on for the world’s scientists to develop a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine. The Inquiry examines quickly how this can be done and what hurdles need to be overcome to roll out a vac...

Coronavirus: What can the world learn from South Korea? from 2020-03-26T03:30

After China, South Korea was next in line to be struck by the Coronavirus outbreak. And in the early days the number of cases was going up fast – many of them related to a secretive religious sect....

Why did the USA fail in its initial coronavirus response? from 2020-03-19T03:30

‘It’s a failing, let's admit it’ says top health official, Dr Anthony Fauci. He’s talking about the fact that it took a month for a working coronavirus test to be rolled out around the country, wh...

How China turned the tide with coronavirus from 2020-03-12T03:30

There are now significantly more new cases of coronavirus outside China than inside. On the first day of this week there were only 44 new cases in the whole country. Just a few weeks ago that figur...

Have our climate models been wrong? from 2020-03-05T03:30

Climate change models have been a key tool to project what could happen with global warming in the future. But there’s a debate in the scientific community and some are saying too much emphasis has...

Why don’t we care about facts? from 2020-02-27T03:30

We have a great capacity to ignore facts and only believe what we want to believe – particularly if those facts clash with our convictions. Why is that and is it getting worse? It’s an area that is...

Why are trade deals so hard to do? from 2020-02-20T03:30

Britain is trying to make multiple trade deals since leaving the EU. Some negotiations between countries have lasted for years. The breakdown in the World Trade Organization, the changing nature ...

Will a pandemic ever kill millions again? from 2020-02-13T03:30

The Coronavirus outbreak in China has been declared a public health emergency of international concern. It is raising fears of a global disease pandemic. In the past viral infections have killed m...

Could India’s Muslims become second class citizens? from 2020-02-06T03:30

Could a new law in India be a step towards making Muslims second class citizens? The government says the Citizenship Amendment Act is a humanitarian law giving protection for people escaping religi...

Is recycling broken? from 2020-01-30T03:30

With countries shutting their doors to foreign recyclable waste and a lack of processing capacity back home, is the recycling system broken? China used to accept 55% of the world’s plastic and pap...

How did Trump get into trouble with Ukraine? from 2020-01-23T03:30

How did Trump’s personality and way of dealing with people lead to a trial in the Senate? The answer involves Trump’s long standing belief in conspiracy theories, his transactional way of doing bu...

Why does Ukraine have such a corruption problem? from 2020-01-16T03:30

On 25 July 2019, the President of the United States made a phone call to the recently-elected President of Ukraine - congratulating him on his party’s election victory. What Donald Trump said in th...

Why was Qasem Soleimani killed? from 2020-01-09T03:00

President Trump’s decision to assassinate Qasem Soleimani came as a shock to America’s foes and allies alike. He was Iran’s top general and has been described as one of the country’s most powerful ...

Will humans become extinct by the end of the century? from 2020-01-02T03:30

What is the chance of the human race surviving the 21st century? There are many dangers – climate change for example, or nuclear war, or a pandemic, or planet Earth being hit by a giant asteroid. ...

Can we eradicate polio? from 2019-12-26T03:30

Despite heroic efforts to vaccinate against this crippling disease, why does it persist? The fight to eradicate polio is an amazing story: It began with a grassroots movement in the United State...

Is Nato obsolete? from 2019-12-19T03:30

Donald Trump is threatening to withdraw the US from Nato while the French President Emmanuel Macron has called it “brain dead”. Charmaine Cozier asks if the 70-year-alliance can survive? She spea...

Should we ban billionaires? from 2019-12-12T03:30

Excluding dictators and royalty, there are around 2,000 people in the world who are billionaires. Some inherit wealth while others might build fortunes through inventions, businesses or investments...

Can we protect our elections from social media manipulators? from 2019-12-05T03:30

An estimated 2.6 billion people use social media, but in the online world not everything is what it seems. Fake accounts and automatic programmes can be used to spread disinformation and influence ...

Why is there a backlash against climate policies? from 2019-11-28T03:30

A year ago more than a quarter of a million people took to the streets across France, in what became known as the “gilets jaunes” protests. They began as a reaction to an increase in fuel tax - a t...

What can we do about the world’s mental health problem? from 2019-11-21T06:00

If there was a serious illness that we knew thirty percent of us would experience in our lives, wouldn’t we do everything in our power to address it? Well research suggests that one in three of us ...

Why are immigrants under attack in South Africa? from 2019-11-14T03:30

In September 2019 violence broke out in the city of Johannesburg. Many people were beaten, at least 12 were killed, and shops were looted and burned down. The perpetrators were mainly poor black So...

How soon can we go carbon zero? from 2019-11-07T03:30

This month activists all over the world have taken over city centres, demanding urgent action to halt climate change. They say we need to eliminate all carbon emissions by 2025. Most people think t...

Why are the Kurds always in the firing line? from 2019-10-31T03:30

Turkey’s push to clear the Kurds from its border with Syria has brought howls of betrayal. Many Kurds believed the Americans would protect them, after they’d defeated the so-called Islamic State te...

Is vaping safe? from 2019-10-24T02:30

After deaths in the US and bans around the world, how risky are e-cigarettes? In some countries, smokeless cigarettes are all the rage. In the UK, doctors say if smokers switch from tobacco to e-...

Can we dismiss QAnon? from 2019-10-17T02:30

The far right conspiracy theory featuring child molesters and baby eaters may sound far-fetched, but the FBI names Q Anon in a report warning conspiracy theorists pose a growing threat of violence....

Are we heading for a global recession? from 2019-10-10T02:30

The world’s two biggest economies are fighting a trade war, European growth is slowing and global manufacturing data looks grim. Financial markets are flashing warning signs. It’s been a decade ...

Is Africa facing another debt crisis? from 2019-10-03T02:30

It’s been almost 15 years since a successful campaign to erase the crushing debts of Africa’s poorest countries. Now, debt levels are again creeping up, thanks in part to a risky mix of easy credit...

How can we save our forests? from 2019-09-26T02:30

In the afternoon of August 20th this year, the sky over Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo turned dark. The cause of this premature night was the smoke from fires burning thousands of kilometres away...

Is rock music doomed? from 2019-09-19T02:30

Bruce Springsteen is turning 70; rock’s gods are getting on. It’s not clear who’s there with electric guitars to replace them. Younger acts are failing to make hit singles. Veteran rock journalist ...

Why the race to build a quantum computer? from 2019-09-12T02:30

Quantum computers could transform our lives. Based on a branch of Physics that even Einstein found "spooky", the machines are still in their infancy. But governments and corporations are spending b...

Why does Donald Trump seem to have such a problem with the truth? from 2019-09-05T02:30

Fact-checkers say the President of the United States has made more than 10,000 false or misleading statements since coming to office. Whether it’s the size of the crowd at his inauguration, the pa...

Why are we having less sex? from 2019-08-29T02:30

Porn, smart phones and the ‘slutty transmitter’. Adults in the US have sex on average about 50 times a year, which has dropped by 20 per cent over the last two decades. It’s a similar story in the ...

Is Germany OK? from 2019-08-22T02:30

It’s known for precision and punctuality but Europe’s engine is slowing down. Germany’s economy relies heavily on selling its products abroad. Famed for luxury cars like Porsche, BMW and Mercedes-...

Do children in two-parent families do better? from 2019-08-08T02:30

In 1965 a report from within the US government noted that the number of children born outside marriage, and the number of divorces, in the parts of the American population were rising rapidly. It a...

Can you reduce Central American migration? from 2019-08-01T02:30

Families from the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador now make up the majority of migrants arriving at the US southern border. Many from urban areas are fleeing endem...

Will China crack down on Hong Kong? from 2019-07-25T02:30

Last month Hong Kong witnessed its largest ever protests, the most violent in decades. A proposed law to allow extradition of criminals to mainland China caused uproar. This bill exposed the cracks...

What kind of Prime Minister would Boris Johnson make? from 2019-07-18T09:26

With his unruly blond hair and shambolic appearance, Boris Johnson is Britain’s best-known politician. He’s also favourite to become the UK’s next Prime Minister. To his supporters, the former Mayo...

How can Chennai’s water crisis be solved? from 2019-07-11T02:30

South India’s biggest city, Chennai, is currently in the grip of drought. With the four main reservoirs which supply the city dry, residents have to queue for hours to collect pots of water from go...

Is the deep ocean the answer to some of our biggest problems? from 2019-07-04T02:30

Our species is facing a whole lot of problems. Antibiotic resistance is on the rise, land based minerals are depleting and there are serious concerns about how warm everything’s becoming. As the p...

Can a government make you happy? from 2019-06-27T02:30

New Zealand is the first western country to state it should be judged not by its economic prosperity but by its citizens’ wellbeing. Might these wellbeing policies be masking an inability by govern...

Can vaccines stop Ebola in the DRC? from 2019-06-20T02:30

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is in the midst of an Ebola epidemic, with over 2,000 cases now confirmed. In June the virus spread to neighbouring Uganda. Amidst this bleak picture, there is ...

Why is it always Alabama? from 2019-06-13T02:30

Alabama has long been the butt of jokes in America. The stereotype is that it is backward, racist and right wing. This month the state passed one of the most restrictive laws on reproductive rights...

Is time travel possible? from 2019-06-06T02:30

Ever wanted to meet your historical heroes or explore the inventions of the future? Travelling in time has long been a dream of writers and filmmakers, but what does science tell us about how possi...

Is the US heading for war with Iran? from 2019-05-30T03:30

On 8 May 2018, the United States withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - a nuclear deal between Iran, the US and other countries. Since then, tensions between Iran and the US have es...

How do you move a capital city? from 2019-05-23T02:30

Indonesia has announced it is thinking of building a new capital city, moving the government away from Jakarta which is overcrowded and suffering from subsidence.Other countries, including Brazil, ...

How did K-Pop conquer the world? from 2019-05-16T02:30

It's a multi-billion dollar industry, with bands selling out stadiums across the world. K-Pop, or Korean Pop has created some of the biggest global music stars. How did bands, singing in Korean com...

What’s next for Sudan? from 2019-05-09T02:30

After months of protests, the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir was removed from office on 11th April by a military coup. Initially there were celebrations, but weeks later, with no clear plan for...

Can you make gangs good? from 2019-05-02T02:30

In 2007, Ecuador decided to recognise some of its street gangs as cultural and social organisations. Since then its murder rate has fallen sharply. Can inclusion policies turn gang membership int...

How can we feed 11 billion people? from 2019-04-25T02:30

The world’s population is set to grow from 7.7 to 11 billion by the end of this century. The challenge is to produce enough food to feed this number of people. In the 1960s the Green Revolution pro...

How scared should we be? from 2019-04-18T02:30

Who benefits from our fear and is there more than just global reporting behind it? Has the world become more dangerous or has our perception of the world just changed? Rolling news and social media...

Why has the Kashmir crisis lasted so long? from 2019-04-11T02:30

In February a bomb blast killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police officers in Kashmir; the worst attack by Pakistani militants in years. Indian military jets were deployed and one was shot dow...

How long can we live? from 2019-04-04T02:30

Life expectancy is going up as we develop new cures for the diseases that kill us off. But can we beat the most fatal condition of all - old age? We talk to scientists on the frontier of fighting t...

How is space changing Earth? from 2019-03-28T03:30

Many nations have now entered the space race. China first sent a man into space in 2003 and in the last few months made a successful, unmanned, landing on the far side of the moon. This was a world...

What is the Wagner Group? from 2019-03-21T03:30

In recent years, in trouble spots and war zones around the world – places such as Syria, Eastern Ukraine and Central African Republic – The Wagner Group has been active. They are fighters for hire...

Will populism destroy the European Union? from 2019-03-14T03:30

The European Union was formed in the years after the Second World War to secure peace and promote economic progress. It aimed to achieve that by ensuring that countries worked together. But that o...

Are smart cities dumb? from 2019-03-07T03:30

Driverless cars powered by renewable energy whisking their healthy and happy citizens between gleaming skyscrapers, criss-crossing efficient roads. That’s the dream of many so called smart cities. ...

Can radicalised kids recover? from 2019-02-28T03:30

Tens of thousands of children have been forced to join militia or terror groups in recent years. The Inquiry looks at conflicts around the world to find out what it takes to rehabilitate a child wh...

How do we stop young people killing themselves? from 2019-02-21T03:06

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-29 year olds globally. But innovative and unexpected ways to tackle this public health issue are emerging. From Nigeria to Finland, ordinary p...

Why don't we care about Yemen? from 2019-02-14T03:30

Three million people in Yemen have been forced from their homes, and the dead are estimated to number many tens of thousands. But, compared to similar conflicts, global attention has been slight. T...

What’s so scary about Huawei? from 2019-02-07T09:58

The tech giant has had a meteoric rise over the last ten years. It has overtaken Apple in the global smartphone market, and its equipment is in telecommunications systems in 170 countries worldwide...

Why Can’t So Many Children Read? from 2019-01-31T03:30

More children than ever before attend school – so why have reading rates been so slow to improve? In some countries teachers are absent from class one day every week, in others early years educati...

Should We Fear ‘Designer Babies’? from 2019-01-24T03:30

In November 2018, a Chinese scientist stunned the world by announcing that he had successfully edited the genes of two embryos. These twins had their DNA changed to try and make them resistant to H...

What Would It Take to Impeach Trump? from 2019-01-17T04:06

Ever since Donald Trump took office in 2016 his critics have been focussed on getting rid of him. As the Mueller probe into Russian collusion in the presidential election heads into its last six m...

Can We Stop a Mass Extinction? from 2019-01-10T03:30

Human activity is sending animals and plants extinct. But there is a fightback going on. Scientists all over the world are coming up with radical solutions to save them - from transplanting pola...

Are We Heading for Another Mass Extinction? from 2019-01-03T03:30

This week we’re looking at nothing less than the state of life on earth. The planet has seen mass extinctions before, periods of widespread and dramatic species loss. Some now fear human activity i...

How Did We Get Hooked on Vitamins? from 2018-12-27T03:30

Millions of us take a vitamin tablet every day - how did they become so popular? We follow the rise and rise of vitamins from their discovery just a century ago, to the multi-billion dollar market ...

What did #MeToo Really Achieve? from 2018-12-20T03:30

#MeToo became viral following allegations of sexual harassment and violence at the hands of Harvey Weinstein. Now women and men in their millions around the world have been mobilised by the hashtag...

Is this the Most Dangerous Time to be a Journalist? from 2018-12-13T03:30

Journalists have been subject to more killings, and increasing levels of violence and intimidation in 2018, according to monitoring groups. This year alone more than 30 have been murdered, includ...

Why Is Brexit So Hard? from 2018-12-06T03:30

The UK voted to leave the European Union in June 2016. More than two years on, it’s still not clear how that will happen, or what will come after. Consensus within Westminster seems impossible, a...

Is the West at War with Russia? from 2018-11-29T03:30

There’s talk of a new Cold War between Russia and the West. What responsibility does the West carry for the dismal state of relations? Russian leaders say Nato has expanded far beyond the borders ...

Is Russia at War with the West? from 2018-11-22T03:30

There are currently a number of serious allegations made in the West against Russia. They include the attempted murder of the former spy Sergei Skripal on British soil; interference in the 2016 US ...

What Makes A Pariah State? from 2018-11-15T03:30

There are different routes to pariah status. North Korea, with its gross human rights abuses and illicit nuclear weapons programme tops the list and represents the classic pariah - completely ostra...

Is the China-Africa Love Affair Over? from 2018-11-01T04:00

The burgeoning relationship between China and Africa has been one of the great economic stories of the 21st century. Billions of dollars of investment and loans from China have created radical chan...

What Went Wrong in Indonesia? from 2018-10-18T02:30

Thousands died when an earthquake and tsunami struck Palu, Indonesia – but could more lives have been saved? Accusations have been made of a host of failings: alert systems that were out of action,...

Can Delhi Clean Up Its Air? from 2018-10-11T02:30

Delhi is one of the worst polluted cities in the world. Radical ideas like skyscraper-sized air purifiers are being proposed to clean the smog – can they work? There are lessons to be learned from ...

Should We Rethink the Ban on Child Labour? from 2018-10-04T02:30

Most countries in the world have signed up to the idea that no child should work at all under a certain age – but is this the best approach? This week Nicolle, a 17 year old from Peru, has been par...

Is Genetic Testing Overrated? from 2018-09-27T01:30

DNA testing is big business. Millions of people worldwide are finding out about their ancestry and genetic health traits by sending off a spit sample to one of the big consumer genetic testing comp...

The Inquiry Junior - Why are North and South Korea divided? from 2018-09-20T02:30

The story of how a line on a map becomes a hard state border that no one can cross.Korea was ruled as one Kingdom for a thousand years. They valued poetry and scholars helped rule the country. But ...

The Inquiry Junior - What’s Killing Africa’s Elephants? from 2018-09-13T02:30

This is a special edition that younger listeners aged 10 to 14 can also enjoy. If you’re no longer in that bracket, don’t worry, The Inquiry as you know and love it will be back to normal after th...

Is Women’s Sport In Trouble? from 2018-09-06T02:30

Ever since it began, women’s sport has been beset by a fundamental question: who gets to compete as a woman? It’s a debate which is more heated now than ever. That’s because in a few months, athle...

How Do You Run A Hacking Operation? from 2018-08-30T02:30

Thousands of cyberattacks occur every single day. Some hackers steal credit card details or pilfer money from online bank accounts. Others cripple businesses, or even governments. As tensions mo...

Who’s in the Driving Seat of the US – Saudi Relationship? from 2018-08-23T03:06

It’s graduation day at the end of a religious summer school in Yemen’s Saada province. A class of young boys are off on a trip to a shrine. In a land of war, they are happy - jostling and full of e...

Could We See Another Aids Pandemic? from 2018-08-16T02:30

The year 2030 was set by the UN as the world's deadline for halting the spread of HIV, stopping Aids deaths, and having the first generation since 1980 born and raised completely free from infectio...

Can We Control 3D Printing? from 2018-08-09T02:30

It was May 2013 when Cody Wilson went public with his 3D-printed handgun. An online video showed the crude plastic object fixed on top of a tripod. The trigger was pulled from a distance by someone...

Is WhatsApp Fuelling Vigilantism? from 2018-08-02T02:30

In India, false rumours about child kidnappers, spread on WhatsApp, have prompted fearful mobs to kill innocent people. In May 2018 a video went viral. The original, a Pakistani child safety video,...

Is Africa’s Longest War Really Over? from 2018-07-26T02:30

It’s a July morning in Ethiopia and Addisalem Hadigu, a journalist in his 50s, boards a flight to neighbouring Eritrea. But it’s no ordinary plane. This ‘bird of peace’ is the first commercial fli...

What does Iran think of the West? from 2018-07-19T02:30

As relations with Iran and the West reach a new low point with the collapse earlier this year of the nuclear deal and the reintroduction of strict economic sanctions we ask: what does Iran think of...

Can We Ever Understand Animals? from 2018-07-12T02:30

By the time she died at the age of 46, Koko the gorilla was a global superstar. Not only could she apparently understand two thousand words of spoken English and convey her own thoughts and feeling...

Are We Heading for a Trade War? from 2018-06-28T03:00

The world’s two biggest economies are on the brink of a costly standoff. The US has announced tariffs of 25% on a swathe of Chinese goods, starting July 6th. China has vowed to respond in kind. ‘If...

Can You Train People To Be Less Prejudiced? from 2018-06-21T03:30

Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson were waiting to meet a business associate in Starbucks. After two minutes, the store manager called the police and the African-American men were removed from the c...

How Do You Make People Have Babies? from 2018-06-14T02:29

More than half the world’s countries are not producing enough babies to offset the number of deaths. Russia is the latest to experience a dip in the fertility rate, despite the government rolling o...

Is Raqqa Recovering After Islamic State? from 2018-06-07T03:06

Last year, the world watched as Islamic State was driven from Raqqa, the city they claimed as their capital. The UN has estimated that around 80% of the city’s buildings were destroyed or damaged i...

Can Computers Predict Crimes That Haven’t Happened Yet? from 2018-05-31T02:45

Chicago resident Robert McDaniel was surprised when a police commander showed up at his home to warn him that they were watching him. With only a misdemeanour conviction and arrests for a number o...

Is North Korea Broke? from 2018-05-24T03:06

North Korea has been under sanctions for many years. But this isolated economy is showing signs of life that might surprise you. From hacking and counterfeit money to coffee shops in Pyongyang, we ...

What Makes a Revolution Successful? from 2018-05-17T03:06

Armenia's recent successful uprising is being celebrated as unprecedented for a former Soviet state. The so-called “velvet revolution” began on the last day in March with a protest walk. It ended ...

Trump and Kim: Can They Close the Deal? from 2018-05-10T16:08

Not long ago, they were calling each other names and raising fears of a nuclear war. Now, it is feasible they could together win the Nobel Peace Prize - if they can reach a deal. The mooted meeting...

What’s the Real Difference Between the Sexes? from 2018-05-03T02:30

In late December 2017, one of the world’s leading neurobiologists died of pancreatic cancer. His name was Ben Barres. He was an extraordinary scientist, advancing our understanding of how the brain...

What’s Killing Black American Babies? from 2018-04-26T02:30

Black infants in America are twice as likely to die in their first year as white infants. This stark disparity has long puzzled doctors and researchers. Why are so many African-American babies dyin...

Are Nerve Agents Out of Control? from 2018-04-19T03:00

Syria, Salisbury, Malaysia Airport – all sites of nerve agent attacks carried out in the past couple of years. Yet hundreds of countries have supposedly destroyed their stockpiles of chemical weapo...

How Did China Ban Ivory? from 2018-04-12T03:00

China’s ivory market is now closed for business. The country has long been one of the world's biggest consumers of ivory. But as of this year, buying and selling ivory in China is illegal. Carving...

How Do Dictators Survive So Long? from 2018-04-05T03:00

When Robert Mugabe was deposed last year, he had ruled Zimbabwe for nearly four decades. How do dictators and authoritarians stay in power? James Tilley, a professor of politics at Oxford Universit...

Is Plastic Doomed? from 2018-03-28T23:30

The tide of public opinion is turning on plastic. The image of a whale with plastic stuck in its mouth on the BBC nature documentary Blue Planet 2 woke people up across the world to the reality of...

What’s Happening to IS Fighters Now? from 2018-03-15T00:30

From courtrooms and prisons to rehab centres and martial arts training. We look to Europe, Iraq, Central Asia and Saudi Arabia to investigate how they are dealing with Islamic State militants. The...

Is Facebook in Trouble? from 2018-03-08T12:30

It is one of the largest, most profitable companies in the world, with billions of users, but more and more questions are being asked of Facebook. Accused of allowing the spread of fake news and ha...

What Happens When a Cyber-attack Strikes? from 2018-03-01T00:30

The US and UK governments have accused Russia of orchestrating the most damaging cyber-attack in history. It caused billions of dollars’ worth of damage in over 60 countries. This programme tells t...

How Do You Close The Gender Pay Gap? from 2018-02-22T00:30

Women earn less than men in every country in the world. Women are now more educated than ever before. But, on average, they don't take home the same in their pay packets. And laws against discri...

Why is Cape Town Running Out of Water? from 2018-02-15T00:30

It is feared than in a few months’ time Cape Town could run out of water. The city is planning for so-called Day Zero when the supply is switched off and people will have to collect water rations. ...

Why Are the Taliban So Resilient? from 2018-02-08T00:30

The Taliban have staged devastating attacks in the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, in recent weeks. And a BBC study has discovered the group is active across the majority of the country – pushing be...

How Did We Get Hooked on Plastic? from 2018-02-01T00:30

The story of how the search for a material to replace ivory changed our lives forever. In the 19th century a billiard ball company placed an advert in a newspaper offering $10,000 to anyone who cou...

What Does China Want in the South China Sea? from 2018-01-25T00:30

China has long been keen to assert its authority in the South China Sea. In recent years, it has undertaken a huge programme of island-building to stake its claim to the region. Fiery Cross, once a...

What’s the Greatest Threat to Poland? from 2018-01-18T00:30

The EU’s launched the ‘nuclear option’ against Poland, the first time it’s triggered the disciplinary measure in its history. They say recent changes to the legal system mean there is a serious thr...

What is IS doing in the Philippines? from 2018-01-11T00:30

In 2017 the black flag of the Islamic State group flew in the southern Philippines as a mixture of local and foreign fighters attacked the Islamic City of Marawi. While the government did eventua...

Is Zero Tolerance the Right Approach for FGM? from 2018-01-04T03:25

In 1994 a United Nations conference, backed by 173 countries, announced that ‘female genital mutilation’ was a “violation of basic rights and a major lifelong risk to women’s health”. Agreeing it s...

What’s The Point Of Bitcoin? from 2017-12-28T12:51

Making sense of the digital currency and the ideology of its founders, fans and future. In 2010 a developer spent 10,000 bitcoin to buy two pizzas. Seven and a half years later that was the equiva...

North Korea deep dive from 2017-12-22T11:20

What next for North Korea? Kim Jong-un's nuclear ambitions and their global repercussions are explored in this special, extended edition of the programme. After a year of repeated weapons testing ...

North Korea deep dive from 2017-12-22T11:20

What next for North Korea? Kim Jong-un's nuclear ambitions and their global repercussions are explored in this special, extended edition of the programme.

After a year of repeated weapons ...

How Do We Rule The Universe? from 2017-12-21T00:30

Governing moon miners, asteroid hunters and space junk sounds pretty tricky, but we better get our act together. This year the majority of space launches included commercial enterprises. Space is n...

Are We Missing a Bigger Opioid Crisis? from 2017-12-07T00:30

Forty-two Americans die every day from an overdose involving painkilling prescription opioids. President Donald Trump recently declared the US opioid epidemic a national public health emergency. Ye...

What Would an Iran-Saudi Arabia War Look Like? from 2017-11-30T00:40

Missiles, fighter jets and mines waiting on the sea bed - war games in the gulf. Tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia is at an unprecedented level since a missile was intercepted over Saudi Arabia...

Why Doesn’t Apple Pay More Tax? from 2017-11-23T00:30

The world’s most profitable company is accused of aggressively dodging tax. Leaked documents in the Paradise Papers show Apple moved hundreds of billions of dollars in untaxed foreign profits to Je...

What Does the Saudi Crown Prince Want? from 2017-11-16T00:29

He’s pushed through reforms but some fear there is a darker desire driving the ruler. In one night, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman arrested over a dozen Princes and government ministers on corrup...

Is the Knowledge Factory Broken? from 2017-11-09T00:30

Academic research stands accused of turning a blind eye to dodgy data, failing to reconcile contradictory findings and valuing money over knowledge. We examine the criticisms, which go the very hea...

How Powerful is Iran’s Revolutionary Guard? from 2017-11-02T10:00

The growth and reach of a group labelled a ‘terror force’ by President Trump. On 13 October President Trump announced new sanctions against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp for supporting te...

How Do You End A Civil War? from 2017-10-26T02:30

Why internal conflicts end and what it might mean for Syria. The war in Syria is in its seventh year and there are few signs that an end is in sight. Yet over the years, other seemingly intractable...

Is the Pope Catholic? from 2017-10-19T02:25

The head of the Roman Catholic Church has been accused of aiding the spread of heresy. A petition criticising the ambiguity of Pope Francis' statements on the treatment of people who have divorced ...

Can We Teach Robots Ethics? from 2017-10-12T02:25

From driverless cars to "carebots", machines are entering the realm of right and wrong. Should an autonomous vehicle prioritise the lives of its passengers over pedestrians? Should a robot caring f...

Is Privacy Dead? from 2017-10-05T02:25

We all do it: ask a search engine things we wouldn’t dare ask a friend, post our lives on social media, hit the ‘agree’ button on privacy conditions we never read. This is life in our online age. ...

Could We Ban the Sale of Petrol and Diesel Cars Now? from 2017-09-28T02:30

The list of nations legislating to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars is growing. But these restrictions won’t come into effect for decades. Air pollution contributes to thousands of early dea...

Can China solve the North Korea problem? from 2017-09-21T02:30

North Korea continues to rattle the world with its rapidly advancing weapons programme. Diplomacy with this Hermit Kingdom is broken and UN sanctions have little effect curtailing the nuclear ambit...

How Do We Stop People Dying in Floods? from 2017-09-15T10:39

Do we have the power to avoid the natural forces of intense rainfall? With rising sea levels and the threat of climate change, the risk of death due to floods seems an insurmountable challenge. But...

What Can We Do With Our Dead? from 2017-09-07T02:30

Cemeteries around the world are fast running out of space. As more and more people choose to live in cities, some can't even cope with the ashes left after cremation. Deep questions about our commu...

How Has The Ku Klux Klan Lasted So Long? from 2017-08-31T02:20

North America’s most notorious racist group, the Ku Klux Klan fought the end of slavery in the 19th century, opposed civil rights in the 20th century and now forms part of a new extreme-right wing ...

Are Video Games a Waste of Time? from 2017-08-24T02:20

Video games are a huge industry, bigger than Hollywood, and billions of people around the world play them for fun. But new economic research in the US suggests that young men are dropping out of wo...

How Do You Fix Someone Else's Election? from 2017-08-17T01:30

Smears, bots and bags of cash - we reveal some of the tricks used for fiddling elections around the world. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's security chiefs say Russian intelligence is actively try...

Are South Africa's Police Failing? from 2017-08-10T09:17

A story of crime and often no punishment. South Africa's notoriously violent record has been getting worse. The number of murders and violent crimes is rising as public confidence in the police fal...

Who Gets to Have Their Own Country? from 2017-08-03T02:30

You might think simple rules decide the creation of nation states. You'd be wrong. There are plenty of people out there who want their own state - like in Iraqi Kurdistan and Catalonia, which both...

What would war with North Korea look like? from 2017-07-27T02:20

Alarm about North Korea has spiked. Earlier this month, the North claimed to have successfully test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. Some experts estimate that ...

Is it Time to Ban the Plastic Bottle? from 2017-07-20T02:30

Every single second, 20,000 single-use drinking bottles are sold around the world. That is more than a million pieces of non-biodegradable rubbish produced every minute. And as demand grows in deve...

Is Gene Editing Out of Control? from 2017-07-13T02:30

"This structure has novel features, which are of considerable biological interest." It was perhaps the greatest understatement of all time - the announcement more than six decades ago of the discov...

What's So Special About Qatar? from 2017-07-06T02:30

The tiny state behind a global diplomatic feud. Qatar's landmass is so small it could fit into the UK 20 times over. Its citizen population is just a few hundred thousand. Yet this desert country ...

Have We Always Felt This Tired? from 2017-06-29T02:25

“Humans are the only species that willingly deprive themselves from sleep”. Ever since fire was discovered, we have traded off sleep time for other activities - from creating stone tools to partyin...

Why Does China Want to Revive the Silk Road? from 2017-06-22T01:30

China is currently developing the biggest infrastructure initiative of all time. Called the Belt and Road initiative, the trillion dollar plans involve working with other Asian countries to build h...

Is the Greatest Threat to Putin Really Alexei Navalny? from 2017-06-15T02:30

On 12 June 2017 thousands of protesters took to the streets in over 160 towns and cities across Russia. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny called on people to march against corruption from Kaliningra...

How Do You Report Terrorism? from 2017-06-08T01:30

When violent jihadis struck London last Saturday, the rolling news networks kicked quickly into action. The story became front-page news around the world and dominated the UK's news media for days,...

Is Work Too Easy? from 2017-06-01T14:51

Many of us find our jobs stressful, underpaid and the hours too long. But few would complain about work being less physically strenuous than in the past. And yet, new research shows that the decli...

Does Poverty Change The Way We Think? from 2017-05-25T01:30

Does the experience of poverty actually take a physical toll on your brain? The Inquiry investigates the scientific claims that being poor affects how our brains work. It's well known that childre...

How Did Immigration Stop Being a Political Taboo in the UK? from 2017-05-18T01:30

Brexit showed that the issue is now among the most important for British voters. And that’s likely to continue in June’s UK general election, as major parties have made their positions on immigrati...

How Did Venezuela Go From So Rich To So Poor? from 2017-05-11T08:55

Once the richest country in South America, Venezuela is now in deep economic crisis. Children in school are fainting from hunger; patients are dying from the lack of basic medicine. As prices spir...

How did North Korea get the bomb? from 2017-05-04T01:30

Tensions between the US and North Korea are running high. Kim Jong-Un has been testing long-range missiles and nuclear weapons. The Trump administration wants Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons p...

Is Inequality About to Get Unimaginably Worse? from 2017-04-27T01:30

Yuval Noah Harari, the author of Sapiens and Homo Deus, explores the long history of inequality – from the Stone Age onwards – and asks whether we are on the brink of creating a huge “economically ...

How Powerful is Facebook's Algorithm? from 2017-04-20T02:00

There is a place on the internet where almost two billion of us regularly go – many of us, every day. Facebook: the social network which Mark Zuckerberg started in his university dorm room and whic...

What Happens When You Legalise Cannabis? from 2017-04-13T01:30

In 2014 marijuana was legalised for recreational use in Colorado and Washington states in the US. Oregon, Alaska, California, Nevada and Massachusetts have all followed. These votes were the result...

Why Is No-one Trying to Stop the War in Yemen? from 2017-04-06T01:00

It’s two years since the start of the Saudi-led military campaign in support of the Yemeni government which was ousted by Houthi rebels. The war has been a disaster for countless civilians. Thousan...

Do We Need A Plan B For Climate Change? from 2017-03-30T01:30

At a recent press conference on the new US budget questions were asked about funding for climate change initiatives. The answer was stark. “We’re not spending money on that anymore,” reporters were...

What’s Wrong With France? from 2017-03-21T03:30

Every candidate in the upcoming presidential election in France is calling for change: change to the bureaucracy, the economy and even the culture. France, they say, is broken; society too divided,...

Are Famines Always Man-Made? from 2017-03-14T03:30

The UN has declared that South Sudan is in the grip of famine. Aid agencies have pointed the finger not at crop failure, weather or some other environmental problem. Humans, they say, have created ...

How is Mosul Being Liberated? from 2017-03-07T03:30

Mosul is today the scene of the largest battle on Earth. Some 100,000 soldiers, police and militiamen are bearing down on the ancient Iraqi city. Backed by Western air power, their mission is to dr...

What Happened to Europe’s Migrant Crisis? from 2017-02-28T02:30

Back in 2015 our radios and TV bulletins were full of stories of people trying to get to Europe. We saw distressing pictures as boats sank and lives were lost. Huge numbers of men, women and childr...

Why Can't We Stop Looking at our Phones? from 2017-02-21T03:30

Our phones are powerful tools with lots of benefits – keeping in touch, accessing information and services and managing our lives. We are using them more and more, constantly picking them up. Even ...

Is Donald Trump Good for Journalism? from 2017-02-14T03:30

President Trump has made no secret of his contempt for news organizations, stating that the media are "among the world's most dishonest people". He has described The New York Times as "failing", Th...

Can You Believe What You Read on WikiLeaks? from 2017-02-07T03:30

Since 2006 the WikiLeaks website has been publishing secret documents and material obtained from whistleblowers and other sources. Many of the confidential files published by WikiLeaks have been re...

What Would ‘No Deal’ Mean For Brexit Britain? from 2017-01-31T03:30

"No deal is better than a bad deal." So said Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, clarifying her country's position on Brexit negotiations with the EU. In the absence of a deal with the EU Britain...

How do you launch a nuclear missile? from 2017-01-24T03:30

'Do we want his finger anywhere near the button?' Hillary Clinton asked during the US election campaign, referring to Mr Trump and the nuclear arsenal. But how close is an American president's fing...

How Did the US Get Stuck With Guantanamo? from 2017-01-17T02:30

In 2002 US military personnel at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba were given 96 hours to prepare their sleepy base for the arrival of hundreds of prisoners. “The worst of the worst,” they were told. Beyond U...

Is There Anybody Out There? from 2017-01-10T09:06

It’s a question humans have asked forever. Are we alone in space? But it wasn’t until the late 1960s that humans started an organised, systematic hunt for extra-terrestrial intelligent life. We hav...

Can We Eat Our Way Out Of Climate Change? from 2017-01-03T02:05

Food production accounts for as much global greenhouse gas emissions as all forms of transport combined. That’s why many scientists think we can’t tackle climate change without addressing what we e...

What Went Right in 2016? from 2016-12-27T02:06

A lot has gone wrong this year. We are not talking about Brexit or the election of Donald Trump – both of which split opinion in Britain and the US. We are talking about terror attacks, the brutal ...

What’s the Story of Aleppo? from 2016-12-15T10:50

We see and hear about Aleppo almost daily as news stories emerge of the hardship endured by its besieged people. After years of bombardment this once majestic place, the 'jewel' of Syria and one of...

Does Turkey Still Want to Join the EU? from 2016-12-13T02:06

Turkey first applied to join the European club over 50 years ago. Over the subsequent decades-long flirtation, enthusiasm for the EU in Turkey has remained high. Integrating with Europe, it was tho...

Why Do Governments Do Stupid Things? from 2016-12-06T02:06

Trust in government is at an all-time low in many countries. From failed healthcare policies to missed intelligence, government blunders happen often – and visibly. But successful policy-making is ...

Why Did The Polls Get it Wrong (Or Did They)? from 2016-11-29T02:06

Hillary Clinton lost the US election despite some polls putting her chances of winning at 99%. In the run up to the vote pollsters spent huge sums of money speaking to thousands of Americans. They...

Why Does Anyone Still Smoke? from 2016-11-22T02:30

Smoking tobacco is the single most dangerous voluntary activity in the world. It kills six million people a year, and if current trends continue that figure is expected to rise to 8 million people ...

After the Electoral Shocks of Brexit and the US Election - What Next? from 2016-11-15T03:30

On 8 November, as they stood in line to cast their votes, Americans were told by pollsters and pundits that, while close, the presidential race would be won by Hillary Clinton. As the results came ...

Was this the Most Divisive US Election Ever? from 2016-11-08T15:35

The Clinton–Trump race has been extraordinary. Two of the most unpopular presidential candidates ever have slugged it out through a bitter campaign. They are both – for different reasons – deeply p...

How Do We Fix Antibiotics? from 2016-10-25T02:30

By 2050, experts predict that drug-resistant infections will kill one person every three seconds unless the world’s governments take drastic steps now. But given the complexity of antibiotics resis...

How Did We Mess up Antibiotics? from 2016-10-19T11:00

Warnings about the approaching post-antibiotics apocalypse have been sounding for years. There are now strains of deadly bacteria that are resistant to all antibiotics. This means that doctors are ...

Can a Corrupt Country Get Clean? from 2016-10-11T08:41

The International Monetary Fund says corruption siphons $2 trillion a year out of the global economy, slowing growth and fuelling poverty. Endemic corruption is very hard to deal with. But not impo...

Why are 10,000 Children Missing in Europe? from 2016-10-04T02:30

Earlier this year Europol, the EU's law enforcement agency, announced 10,000 children had arrived in Europe, part of the wave of migration that has swept through the continent in recent years. They...

Is Islamic State Finished? from 2016-09-27T02:30

So-called Islamic State is on the run. Caught in a pincer movement in Syria and Iraq, the group has lost large swathes of territory over the past year. With its revenues and numbers of fighters als...

Who Wins in a Cashless Economy? from 2016-09-20T02:30

The death of cash has been predicted many times over the years. But in the last decade a future without coins and notes has become a real possibility thanks to the global development and adoption o...

What’s the Point of Lotteries? from 2016-09-13T02:30

It is now hard to find a country that does not have a state sponsored lottery – even the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan recently adopted one. They have famously been called a “tax for people wh...

Can Coral Reefs Survive? from 2016-09-06T02:30

Over the past eight months almost a quarter of the Great Barrier Reef has died – according to some estimates – because of coral bleaching, which can happen when sea temperatures rise. It's not the ...

Is Retirement Over? from 2016-08-30T02:30

For millennia human beings worked until they dropped. Then in the late 19th century, Otto von Bismarck started the first state pension in Germany. The idea caught on. By the 20th century, advances...

Would Donald Trump Be a Dangerous President? from 2016-08-23T02:30

Earlier this month 50 senior Republican national security officials signed a letter arguing that Donald Trump “lacks the character, values and experience” to lead the United States. “We are convinc...

Why Don’t Cities Want The Olympics? from 2016-08-16T02:30

The Olympic Games has a problem. In recent years the number of cities entering bids to host either the Winter or Summer Olympics has dropped dramatically. For the 2004 Summer Olympics, 12 cities bi...

Has Russia Won In Ukraine? from 2016-08-09T08:54

The fighting in Ukraine has fallen off the front pages recently after making headline news in 2014. But Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists are still engaged in a frozen conflict with n...

How Did we Save the Ozone Layer? from 2016-08-02T01:00

On 30 June this year, a study was released in one of the world's top scientific journals. It explained how a group of scientists who had been measuring the amount of ozone in the stratosphere had m...

Can Colombia Reintegrate the Farc? from 2016-07-26T01:30

After more than 50 years of armed conflict that has left 200,000 dead and millions displaced, Colombia is on the brink of peace. A final deal between the government and the Farc guerrilla movement ...

Is Brexit Inevitable? from 2016-07-19T08:00

“Brexit means Brexit,” says Theresa May, Britain’s new prime minister. It sounds pretty unequivocal: the UK voted in a referendum to leave the European Union, so that’s what it must do. But credibl...

Can Trump Win? from 2016-07-12T01:30

Donald Trump has shocked the US political establishment by knocking out every other Republican candidate to become his party’s presumptive candidate for President. Does he have a realistic shot of ...

Can You Make Bankers Behave Better? from 2016-07-05T02:30

The $5bn settlement recently agreed by Goldman Sachs is the latest in a long list of multi-billion dollar fines paid by banks implicated in the 2008 financial crisis. But behind these giant corpora...

Can the EU Survive? from 2016-06-28T09:11

The UK has voted to leave the EU, sending shockwaves through Britain’s political class and its economy. Whatever the fate of Britain – and many fear years of damaging instability – Brexit is a seri...

Why Do So Many People Dislike Hillary? from 2016-06-20T17:20

Hillary Clinton is the odds-on favourite to be the next president of the USA. But polls show more and more Americans view her unfavourably. In fact, the public's hostility towards her is record-bre...

Are We Really About to End World Poverty? from 2016-06-14T01:05

“More than half the people of the world are living in conditions approaching misery,” declared President Truman at his second inauguration. “For the first time in history, humanity possesses the kn...

Why Can't Egypt Stop FGM? from 2016-06-07T16:44

Some 92% of married Egyptian women aged between 15-49 have had their genitals cut. FGM is more common in Egypt than anywhere else in the world. These astonishing statistics are all the more surpris...

Are we Fighting Cancer the Right Way? from 2016-05-31T01:06

The World Health Organisation says the number of cancer cases will rise by 70% over the next 20 years. A huge amount of effort and money is spent fighting the disease. But are we getting that fight...

Would A New International Convention Help Refugees? from 2016-05-24T00:06

The 1951 UN Refugee Convention was forged at a time when the world was recovering from a global war which had displaced vast numbers of people. Sixty-five years on, it is still the benchmark for re...

What's Killing White American Women? from 2016-05-10T01:06

The rich world has got used to health and longevity getting better, and death rates falling – for everyone. But over the past few years data has been accumulating which suggests that this trend has...

What Happened to the European Dream? from 2016-05-03T14:17

In June, the UK will vote on whether to become the first country ever to leave the European Union. Anti-EU political parties are on the rise across the continent. In April, the Dutch people rejecte...

Should We Give Homeless People Homes? from 2016-04-26T01:30

It is a surprisingly simple idea - to end long-term homelessness, give every person living on the streets a home. It can also be surprisingly effective. Medicine Hat, a city in Canada, recently bec...

What Kind of Person Becomes a Violent Jihadi? from 2016-04-21T12:22

For decades researchers, academics and psychologists have wanted to know what kind of person becomes a terrorist. If there are pre-existing traits which make someone more likely to kill for their b...

Do We Have Enough Genders? from 2016-04-13T09:37

Gender identity is considered more fluid than ever because of the success of the trans movement. But most trans people, just like everyone else, still identify as either a man or a women. For those...

What Happened To Al-Qaeda? from 2016-04-05T01:30

A deadly al-Qaeda attack on an Ivory Coast resort town in March reminded the world that the terror network once led by Osama bin Laden has not gone away. But in recent years it has been eclipsed an...

Why Do Mexicans Drink So Much Soda? from 2016-03-29T01:50

Most research places Mexico at the top of the chart when it comes to the consumption of sugary drinks – by some estimates, they get through half a litre per person every day. Mexico also has some o...

Can we Quake-Proof a City? from 2016-03-22T02:05

They are at once the most predictable and unpredictable killers. We know continent-sized slabs of earth are moving beneath our feet. We know they move at a speed that is often harmless - the same r...

Why Are Wages So Low? from 2016-03-08T02:05

Pay packets in developed economies have hardly grown in decades.

Economic output and the number of people in jobs have both improved since the global downturn. But with income levels fail...

How Did Governments Lose Control of Encryption? from 2016-03-01T02:05

The clash between Apple and the FBI is the latest battle in a century-long conflict over the power to keep secrets. The FBI wants Apple to build a “backdoor to the iPhone” so that it can read encry...

Has President Assad Won? from 2016-02-23T02:05

Bashar al-Assad and his Syrian National Army appear to have the upper hand. The president has the momentum in a civil war that has raged for five years. It is a very different picture from that of ...

Why Don’t We Eradicate Mosquitoes? from 2016-02-15T17:41

Mosquitoes are the most dangerous animals on the planet. They spread diseases - malaria, dengue and zika – that kill huge numbers of people and cause suffering to many more.

So why not era...

How Did Iceland Clean Up its Banks (And Why Can't We)? from 2016-02-09T10:18

At 4pm on 6 October 2008, as the global financial crisis ravaged Iceland’s economy, its prime minister addressed the nation. "There is a danger, fellow citizens," he said, "that Iceland could be su...

How Has the US Gun Lobby Been so Successful? from 2016-01-26T02:05

When President Obama wept at a recent press conference to announce action on gun control, his tears might have been born of frustration as well as sadness. Despite frequent mass-shootings, events w...

What is China Doing to Clear the Air? from 2016-01-19T02:05

The air in much of China is so bad the government has repeatedly declared "war" on it. The enemy are tiny particulates which spew forth from countless cars, coal-fired power stations and steel plan...

How Much Inequality Is Too Much? from 2016-01-05T02:05

The richest 10% of Americans earn half of all of income. In Britain, the top 10% hold 40% of all the income. Inequality is not just an issue for rich countries. A billion people have been lifted ou...

Should We Solar Panel The Sahara? from 2015-12-29T02:05

The world has a problem. The climate is changing. At least, most people think so. That’s why global leaders have been meeting in Paris to work out a way to deal with the problem. They blame carbon ...

How Will a Population Boom Change Africa? from 2015-12-22T02:05

The UN forecasts that the number of people living in Africa will double in the next 35 years. Nigeria, the fastest-growing nation, is expected to become the third-largest country in the world by 20...

Is Saudi To Blame For ‘IS’? from 2015-12-15T02:06

Many claim that ‘Islamic State’ is the ideological offspring of Saudi Arabia; that the strict form of Islam originating in the Kingdom - and the Saudi state's aggressive promotion of it around the ...

Should Governments Drop Money Out of Helicopters? from 2015-12-08T02:06

Imagine waking up one morning to the sound of a helicopter overhead. You look out and see that packages are being dropped in front of the homes of everyone on your street. You race downstairs, and ...

How Do Cartels Get Drugs into the US? from 2015-12-01T02:06

In November the US Drug Enforcement Administration issued its Drug Threat Assessment. Mexican ‘transnational criminal organisations’, it said, are the primary suppliers of heroin, cocaine, methamph...

Can ‘Islamic State’ Be Defeated? from 2015-11-21T10:30

We first asked this question over a year ago. So far, the answer has been no. The attacks in Paris killed 129 people. The day before that 43 people died when suicide bombers hit Beirut. Nearly two ...

Have We Underestimated Plants? from 2015-11-17T09:09

New research suggests plants might be capable of more than many of us might expect. Some – controversially – even describe plants as “intelligent”, or even “sentient”. So, this week, we’re asking: ...

Is it too Late to Save Syria’s Antiquities? from 2015-11-10T02:05

Syria’s cultural heritage is being attacked from all sides - the Assad regime, opportunistic looters, opposition forces, Islamic State fighters and even Russian air strikes. Ancient sites like Palm...

Why was Mohammed Akhlaq Killed? from 2015-11-03T02:30

Mohammed Akhlaq’s murder shocked India. A mob broke into his house last month and beat him to death. They believed a rumour that Mr Akhlaq, a Muslim, had broken a Hindu taboo by slaughtering a cow....

How Do You Save the Rhino? from 2015-10-27T02:05

Rhinos are in trouble. The ancient Sumatran rhino has just been declared extinct in Malaysia, following the fate of black rhinos in West Africa in 2011. Central Africa's northern white rhino has be...

Can Nigeria End Oil Corruption? from 2015-10-20T01:00

Oil accounts for around 75% of Nigeria’s economy, but no-one knows how much the country produces or refines. It means corruption is rife. Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil are stolen every da...

Is Russia Vulnerable? from 2015-10-13T01:00

Russia’s intervention in Syria caught the world by surprise. Moscow gave Washington just one hour’s notice before it began its aerial bombardment. Russia claims its jets are attacking the so-called...

What Does the President Need to Know? from 2015-10-06T01:00

The CIA has just released 2,500 top secret presidential briefings from the 1960s. The President’s Daily Brief – or PDB – is the US intelligence agencies’ best assessment of global threats, delivere...

Do Drone Strikes Work? from 2015-09-29T01:00

The United States, UK, Israel and now Pakistan all use drone strikes to kill. In September a general in the Pakistani army announced their first ever use of an armed drone. It was directed at a ter...

Is Japan Abandoning Pacifism? from 2015-09-22T01:00

Japan is a pacifist country - at least that is what its constitution says. The wording, introduced under the occupying forces after World War Two, seems unequivocal: “the Japanese people forever re...

Why is Argentina Still so Sexist? from 2015-09-15T01:15

Tens of thousands of people have marched in Buenos Aires and elsewhere in outrage at the astonishing frequency with which women are being killed in Argentina - the vast majority at the hands of the...

Can We Learn to Live with Nuclear Power? from 2015-09-01T01:30

In 2011, following a devastating tsunami, Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power station went into meltdown, leaking radiation. It was the most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl. It appeared to sen...

Migrant Crisis: What Else Could Europe Try? from 2015-08-25T01:30

Tens of thousands of migrants continue to queue at the borders of the European Union in search of a better life. Their journeys are often hazardous and thousands have drowned in the Mediterranean t...

What Will Happen When Robots Take Our Jobs? from 2015-08-18T01:30

Robots are coming for your job. Blue-collar jobs in industries like manufacturing have been disappearing for years but now white-collar work is under threat too. Machines are already taking roles t...

Should Anyone Ever Talk to IS? from 2015-08-11T01:05

In June last year the world's attention became fixed on the progress of so-called Islamic State, or IS. They had just captured Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. Since then a reported 20,000 fighte...

What’s Behind the Anti-Vax Movement? from 2015-08-04T01:05

This July, it was reported that a woman from Washington State in the US had died of measles. It was the first measles death in the country in 12 years and comes after a huge spike in the number of ...

Why do Tax Havens Still Exist? from 2015-07-28T01:30

In 2009, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown declared “the beginning of the end” for off-shore tax havens. Since then, the EU, the G20, President Obama and others have lined up to criticise them. And ye...

What Does China’s Stock Market Crash Tell Us? from 2015-07-21T01:00

China's economy was up 150% until June. Then it fell by nearly a third. Now it has had the strongest two-day rise since the 2008 global crisis. China’s rollercoaster stock market has provoked panic...

Is Streaming Good for Music? from 2015-07-14T01:05

Streaming has transformed the way millions listen to music. Whether signed up to Spotify, Apple Music or others, music lovers can access tens of millions of tracks instantly and for the monthly cos...

How Easy is it to Dope in Sport? from 2015-07-07T01:05

The global effort to prevent athletes using performance-enhancing drugs is vast and sophisticated. You might think, in this era of advanced testing, it would be almost impossible to cheat and get a...

Has Austerity Worked? from 2015-06-30T03:30

The global financial crisis reignited an old debate - is it better to cut spending and raise taxes in an economic downturn, or spend your way out of it? After a period of relative consensus up to 2...

Would Greece Be Better Off Out of the Euro? from 2015-06-23T03:00

Despite the tense and increasingly bitter negotiations between Greece and its European creditors - who the Greek government accuse of demanding intolerable austerity – most Greek people want their ...

What Does China Want From Space? from 2015-06-16T09:00

Fifteen years ago, manned space flight was still a dream for China. Now, they are looking to the moon. They have mastered space walking, they are building advanced scientific satellites in partners...

Will Anyone Help the Rohingya? from 2015-06-08T20:59

Shocking images have brought the Rohingya to the world’s attention - boatloads of people drifting aimlessly on the Indian ocean, sustained by bottles of water thrown to them by visiting journalists...

Is Opposition to GM Crops Irrational? from 2015-06-02T04:30

Ask a scientist, and they will almost certainly tell you genetically modified food is safe to eat. Yet an awful lot of consumers disagree. Is their fear of GM food irrational? Earlier this year the...

Who Can Fix Fifa? from 2015-05-22T21:30

Fifa has been described as a “totalitarian” set-up “beyond ridicule” with a leadership “incapable of reform or cultural change”. A corruption report is said to have contained “numerous materially i...

Why is South Africa Still So Unequal? from 2015-05-12T02:05

The violent riots on the streets of South Africa in recent weeks have seen foreigners killed, their shops looted and 5,000 left homeless. They are accused of taking jobs from locals in a country wh...

Is Cyber Warfare Really That Scary? from 2015-05-05T02:05

Last month Nato ran a military exercise involving over 400 people from 16 countries. It was the most advanced ‘live-fire’ cyber-defence exercise ever carried out. The point of it all? To help Nato ...

How Has Rwanda Saved The Lives Of 590,000 Children? from 2015-04-28T02:05

In 2000 the world committed to reduce child mortality rates by 2015. At the time, there were on average 90 under-five deaths per 1,000 live births globally. Now there are 46. The UN says that means...

What Is The Yemen Conflict Really About? from 2015-04-21T03:05

In a matter of months rebels have swept through Yemen, capturing the capital, forcing the president into exile and causing hundreds of casualties as a simmering conflict has exploded into war. But ...

Is There A New Nuclear Arms Race? from 2015-04-14T03:30

Later this month 190 nations will meet in New York to discuss the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), 45 years after it came into force. The Treaty prompted several aspiring nuclear-weapon nati...