The Inquiry

After serving nearly a year of his 26 year sentence for treason in a Nicaraguan jail, Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa was flown to Rome in January. The high profile bishop known as an outspoken critic of President Ortega’s Sandinista government has been under house arrest since August 2022. He was allowed to leave the country alongside his supporter Bishop Isidoro Mora and a group of priests a...

After months of tension and hostility in the Middle East over the Gaza-Israel conflict, Iran has publicly stated its desire to avoid a regional conflict. It has however displayed its military force on several fronts. There have been missile strikes. Iran targeted militant bases in western Pakistan leading to a retaliatory back-and-forth with Pakistan. With attacks on Iraq and Syria, Tehran said it...

Indonesia’s ambitious plan to move the administrative headquarters of its capital city from Jakarta to a new location on the island of Borneo, in the East Kalimantan province, is nearing the completion of its first phase. Known as Nusantara, the new city’s inauguration is scheduled to coincide with Indonesia’s Independence Day on 17th August, the date of the final term of office for the current Pr...

In 1973 America ended a draft that had been in effect since before it entered the second World War, and for the last fifty years the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines have been an all-volunteer military. But, recently, of the four major branches which make up the US armed services, only the Marines have achieved their target for new recruits. And the biggest force, the Army, has been struggling...

Something strange started happening in early 2023 in the waters off south-western Europe, where the Mediterranean sea meets the Atlantic ocean. Orcas began slamming into the sides of fishing and sailing vessels. The killer whales then dived underneath to locate and destroy the rudders used to steer the boats. Once finished, the orcas departed, leaving shocked crews and thousands of dollars of dama...

Sargassum seaweed was recorded as far back as the 15th century when Christopher Columbus wrote in his expedition diaries about miles and miles and miles of dense seaweed as he crossed the Atlantic Ocean. In 2011, a great mass of this seaweed emerged, stretching from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, a phenomenon known as the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt. Since then it’s been washing up on coastl...

Toyota has unveiled a revolutionary electric car battery, able to travel 1,200 kilometres in one go and can be charged in just ten minutes. Toyota’s CEO Koji Sato said that “commercialisation of solid state batteries is a thing of the future... now within reach, changing the future of cars". The company also claims to be on the brink of being able to manufacture them. So is this, as some are claim...

Tensions between South American neighbours Venezuela and Guyana have ratcheted up a notch in recent weeks over the disputed oil rich region of Essequibo. The territory, which is roughly the size of Florida, currently makes up around two thirds of Guyana and vast oil reserves were discovered here in 2015 which have helped make Guyana’s economy one of the fastest growing in the world. Essequibo has...

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 also set to be the scene of the open-water swimming events and work is now being done to make sure the polluted waterway will be clean and safe enough for the Olympic participants. To accommodate the expected...

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 that can have symptoms like loss of sight and speech, dizziness, nausea and extreme fatigue. There are drugs which can help those struggling with the condition like anti-depressants and anti-convulsants. Howe...

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 Awami League will remain in power. In recent months there has been an increase in political protests calling for a neutral interim government ahead of the polls opening. But these protests have only resulted...

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 us into a stalemate." He explains that using drones and remote surveillance equipment in battlezones means each side knows what the other is doing. That slows down troops advancing, and creates a standoff....

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 sixty percent of Australians supported it. This was an opportunity for the establishment of an advisory body to Parliament that would allow Indigenous Peoples a voice on the issues affecting their own commu...

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 the body will be created. It will be a reference for what every kind of normal human cell should look like. But that will also vary depending on who you are and where you live. It will give doctors a tool to measu...

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 that goes back decades to Israel's foundation. But does the US have the diplomatic influence to bring peace to the region? This week on the Inquiry: what can US diplomacy achieve in the Middle East. Contributors:...

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. Tensions in the area are rising as Russia turns to China for cooperation. China in return wants to position itself as a major power in the region. Geopolitical tensions mean that any disputes become harder to resolve and pote...

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 refuge on European shores for one reason or another, whilst the tightening of external borders and asylum laws have proved ineffective in stopping the boats. There have been years of disagreements over migratio...

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 of companies going into liquidation this year as order books are emptying and demand for new homes has fallen. So why can’t Germany build enough homes? A combination of high construction costs caused by infl...

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 been in dispute over their ill-defined border in the Himalayan region. A military escalation of this dispute in 1962 led to the creation of the ‘line of actual control’ or the LAC, the de facto border betwe...

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 over 1m deaths, made a significant impact on lowering the average life expectancy. In comparison with other peer countries, the USA also did not return to pre-Covid levels at the same rate. However there ar...

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 PA has lost legitimacy. There’s no plan for how to choose a successor to Mahmoud Abbas and any candidate is likely to be controversial. There’s a risk that an unpopular replacement may throw the occupied ter...

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 much more than just digest our food and there’s a very special connection to our brain. So how exactly does our gut work? And what do we need to do in order to keep it healthy? Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Lou...

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 sky. Pilots described encounters with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon – or UAPs. Congress also heard of a secret US government programme that retrieves and reverse engineers materials made by non-humans,...

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 office, for at least some part of the working week. The levels of working from home currently vary, depending on the country and its culture. The Netherlands are looking at legislation to allow employees th...

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 threat, from deforestation, agri-business, mining and politics. Brazil’s current president, Luis Ignácio de Silva, has made the future security of the Amazon and its peoples a key policy pledge. So far, the pr...