The Inquiry

Rewilding, or letting nature take care of itself, can restore stability to damaged ecosystem components which support life on earth, like fungi, bacteria, vegetation, insects and animals.

But there's now a wider discussion to discover what it’s capable of on a wider scale.

International agreements for reducing the impact of climate change tend to set global targets.

However, individual governments decide how to work towards meeting th...

In February, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk posted a social media video celebrating new figures from the International Monetary Fund suggesting that the average person in Poland now has slightly more spending power than the average person in Spain, the European Union’s fourth largest economy.

It’s a symbolic milestone for a country that emerged from communism just over three decades ago and once struggled with hyperinflation and...

Half a million people are in Spain without official permission.

They come mainly from Colombia, Peru, Honduras, Paraguay, and Argentina. It’s thought that most outstay their work, student, or tourist visas.

An amnesty to grant them legal status to remain and work is due to start within weeks.

It's a very different approach from most other countries in Europe that have been tightening controls on migration.

The prime minister has admi...

Control of critical minerals is becoming a source of geopolitical tension. They are essential to modern technology and industries around the world, and China currently dominates the mining and processing industry.

As demand grows, governments in the United States and elsewhere are looking at ways to reduce their reliance on Chinese supply chains. That means investing in new mines and processing facilities even though they are expens...

The 2026 men’s football World Cup will be the biggest ever staged. For the first time, 48 teams will compete, playing more than 100 matches across North America.

But the expanded scale comes at a cost. Ticket prices are far higher than at the last World Cup in Qatar. With matches also spread across the US, Mexico and Canada, attending the tournament is becoming unaffordable for many global fans.

FIFA says higher revenues will be rein...

Chennai, São Paulo, Mexico City, Tehran, Cape Town - these cities have all faced the threat of a ‘Zero Day’, or, having no fresh water left in their taps.

The UN says we’re entering a ‘water bankruptcy’ era, meaning our water ‘current accounts’ are running empty, while our ‘savings accounts’ - the long term stores of water deep underground - have been depleted, with some beyond repair.

So how did we get here?

From clearing forests f...

Bangladesh will hold a national election in February, after years of political turmoil and the ousting of long-time leader Sheikh Hasina. Her rule of more than a decade delivered strong economic growth but was also accompanied by tighter political control and repeated confrontations with protesters.

Sheikh Hasina’s party, the Awami League, has been banned. This has brought renewed focus on the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s leader T...

Boosting, swiping or the five finger discount - many countries around the world are seeing a rise in retail theft.

From Japan to the UK, the USA to Germany, retailers are struggling to tackle shoplifting - but the factors fueling this trend are as varied as the people carrying out these crimes. Poverty, opportunism, thrill-seeking - and technology - are some of the factors experts say are to blame. But a more costly problem is t...

Iran has been shaken by protests on a scale not seen since its 1979 revolution.

Demonstrations that began in the country’s capital over the state of the economy have spread to multiple cities, with wider calls for political change.

The government has called the demonstrations "riots" backed by the nation’s enemies.

Thousands have been killed.

For some, the scenes bring back memories of the uprising that toppled the monarchy more than ...

In February 2026, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty bilateral between Russia and the United States is set to expire. The aim of the New START agreement was to reduce and limit the number of strategic nuclear warheads, but once this treaty comes to an end it means there will no longer be rules on the cap of these nuclear weapons. The legal provisions in the treaty for a one-time five-year extension, were used in 2021.

...

Kenya is facing rising public discontent over allegations of political corruption, economic stagnation and a shortage of good quality jobs, particularly for the country’s Gen Z.

One of the government’s flagship responses is an ambitious push into digital outsourcing. It argues that call centres, coding work and other IT-enabled services can position the country as a global hub and generate a million new jobs within five years.

The m...

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour shattered records, becoming the highest-grossing concert tour of all time, redefining what’s possible and confirming a new era in the business of touring.

As streaming transformed how we listen to music, selling records is no longer the financial centrepiece it once was for artists. Instead, exclusivity has been transferred to the live experience. But staging shows on this scale requires enormous investment...

Christmas is a time of year when many families and friends come together for a period of joy, peace and goodwill.

The story of the birth of Jesus Christ has been translated into thousands of languages over thousands of years.

And while you may hear it differently, the message is the same.

From carols to conversations, Christmas reminds us how united we can be. But there’s still one thing that sets us apart and prevents us from truly ...

In November gunmen seized more than 300 pupils and a dozen teachers from a Catholic school in northern Nigeria. While authorities have rescued around 100 children, many remain missing.

Kidnapping has become a recurring reality in many parts of the country, and in late 2025 President Bola Tinubu declared the crisis a national security emergency. He pledged to boost security in remote areas, but rights groups say the true scale of ab...

Changing tastes, climatic conditions, health warnings, economic factors are all creating a perfect storm for the global wine industry. The origins of wine-making date back to around 9,000 years ago, when it was a drink mostly associated with elite society. Since then, it has had a long association with major occasions like weddings and funerals, as the beverage of choice. And it has been integral to different forms of worship a...

On 10 December 2025, Australia will become the first country in the world to ban under-16s from using social media apps. Children will have their accounts deactivated on most platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, X, and Facebook.

Critics say the ban could push children to unregulated platforms, but prime minister Anthony Albanese argues the new law is to safeguard vulnerable members of society. World leaders are watching ...

The eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded the north after a military coup backed by Greece. Since then, the northern third has been run by a Turkish-Cypriot government. This self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is recognised as an independent state only by Turkey, while the rest of the world sees it as part of Cyprus. The southern two-thirds of the island is run by an i...

Cardinal Robert Prevost made history earlier this year, when he became the first American pontiff to lead the Catholic Church. And when he stepped out onto the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica as Pope Leo XIV, dressed in traditional papal robes, some conservatives in the church took it as a sign of a symbolic shift away from what they saw as the liberal drift of his predecessor the late Pope Francis.

Francis, who had put social jus...

From floods in Pakistan to droughts in the Horn of Africa, extreme weather events are already forcing millions of people to move. Most are displaced within their own countries but rising temperatures and sea levels could soon push many across national borders.

Yet international law offers little protection for those uprooted by the changing climate, and few countries appear ready for the scale of movement predicted in coming decades...