In September Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni announced the introduction of special fees for passengers disembarking from cruise ships at Mykonos, Santorini and some other ports. The fees are part of a broader strategy to manage the resurgence of mass tourism post-covid, reducing some of the negative impacts such as pressure on water supplies, waste management and overcrowding, while spreading the economic benefits more fairly across society. Greece is not alone in considering how to alleviate the tensions arising when exceptional numbers of tourists arrive during peak holiday times. Venice has limited the size of tour groups, charging visitors a daily entry fee and the mayor of Barcelona has pledged to eliminate short-term tourist lets in the city within five years, to ease housing pressures.

With revenues from international tourism reaching USD 1.8 trillion last year according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, many governments and experts are thinking carefully about how to strike a balance between the economic boost, the tourist experience and the welfare of local communities. Can tourists be enticed away from those Instagram hot spots and what potential solutions could Greece employ to deal with overtourism? Contributors Katerina Kikilia, Head of Tourism Management, University of West Attica, Athens Sandra Carvão, Director of Market Intelligence, Policies, and Competitiveness, UN World Travel Organisation Kumi Kato, Professor in Tourism Studies, Wakayama University, Japan Cevat Tosun, Eisenhower chair and professor of Tourism Studies and management at George Washington University School of Business

Presenter: Charmaine Cozier Production: Diane Richardson and Matt Toulson Broadcast Co-ordinator: Jacqui Johnson Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Toby James

(Image: Oia, Thira, Greece / Getty Images: Fernando Vazquez Miras)

Just over three years ago the Taliban seized Kabul and stormed to power in Afghanistan. They soon declared a new government which is still not recognised by any other country.

The Taliban claim they have made improvements to the country. War is over and, they say, there is more peace and security than before they came to power.

But millions of people are struggling to survive in the country, there is a restrictive rule of law that is imposed by a very hierarchical government structure and half the population need aid.

This week on The Inquiry we’re asking ‘How are the Taliban governing Afghanistan?’

Presenter: Emily Wither Producers: Louise Clarke and Matt Toulson Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producers: Nicky Edwards and Cameron Ward

Contributors: Dr Weeda Mehran, co-director for Advanced Internationalist studies at Exeter University Graeme Smith, senior analyst for the International Crisis Group Dr Orzala Nemet, research associate at ODI Overseas Development Institute Javid Ahmad, non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC

(Photo by WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images)

At the beginning of September, the far-right party Alternative for Germany or AfD, won an election in the eastern state of Thuringia. The result marked the far right’s first win, in a state parliament election, since World War Two. In the more populous neighbouring state of Saxony the party came in a close second. Whilst in both states the party has been officially classed as ‘right-wing extremist’, the results nonetheless, signify a sharp rebuke from the voting public towards Germany’s established political forces, including the ruling coalition.

The Afd was founded in 2013 as an anti-euro party to challenge the government. It entered the German parliament for the first time in 2017 and now it’s focus has shifted to immigration and Islam. As the country faces federal elections next year, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz has urged mainstream parties to block the AfD from governing in Thuringia by maintaining a so-called firewall against it. But in terms of the voting public, the polls currently suggest the party could also take the most votes in Brandenburg state’s election coming up.

So, on this week’s Inquiry we’re asking, Can Germany’s far right win the country?

Contributors: Thomas König, Professor Dr. of Political Science, European Politics, University of Mannheim, Germany Dr. Michelle Lynn Kahn, Associate Professor, Modern European History, University of Richmond, VA, USA Christina Zuber, Professor Dr. of German Politics, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz, Germany Jörn Fleck, Senior Director of the Europe Centre, The Atlantic Council, Washington DC, USA

Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Matt Toulson Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Broadcast Co-ordinator: Jacqui Johnson

Image Credit: CLEMENS BILAN/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

In August this year, a US court in Washington DC ruled that Google acted illegally to crush its competition and maintain a monopoly on online search and related advertising. This is just one of a number of lawsuits that have been filed against the big tech companies, as US antitrust authorities attempt to strengthen competition in the industry.

Now Google is facing another legal case in Virginia, USA, over its advertising technology. Whilst in Europe it has been fined billions in monopoly cases. Google themselves dispute they are a ‘monopolist’ and presented evidence in the US court case in August to show that they face ‘fierce competition from a broad range of competitors’. The court did find Google’s search to be ‘superior’ to its competitors. And Google’s executives say consumers stick with them because they find Google ‘helpful’.

Google is everywhere in our online lives and it handles billions of search queries every day, so on this week’s Inquiry, we’re asking ‘Can we trust Google?’

Contributors: David Vise, Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist and Author of ‘The Google Story’, New York, USA Professor Douglas Melamed, Visiting Fellow, Stanford Law School, Washington, DC. USA Jonathan Stray, Senior Scientist, UC Berkeley Center for Human-Compatible AI, California, USA Cristina Caffarra, Independent Expert Economist, Honorary Professor, UCL, London, UK

Presenter: David Baker Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Matt Toulson Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Broadcast Co-ordinator: Jacqui Johnson

Image Credit: Reuters/Steve Marcus

Hezbollah has both political and military wings both of which are designated by several countries as terror organisations. It emerged several decades ago in Lebanon.

Since Israel launched its war in Gaza in the wake of the Hamas attacks of October 7th, it has intensified its military activities along the border between Israel and Lebanon.

The persistent question has been what is it trying to achieve? Are the attacks intended as a show of support for the Palestinians in Gaza or an attempt to take advantage of Israel’s diverted military focus? And could this dangerous front lead to an all-out war in the Middle East?

This week on the Inquiry we are asking: What does Hezbollah want?

Contributors: Aurélie Daher, Associate Professor in political science at the University Paris-Dauphine Lina Khatib, Associate Fellow with the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House Dr Bashir Saade, Lecturer of Politics and Religion at the University of Stirling in Scotland Mehran Kamrava, Professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar

Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Louise Clarke Researcher: Matt Toulson Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Gareth Jones Broadcast Co-ordinator: Jacqui Johnson

Image: Hezbollah Fighters and Mourners Attend Funeral of Top Commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut / NurPhoto / Contributor via Getty Images

In 2018 an historic document known as the ‘Provisional Agreement’ was signed between the Catholic Church and the People’s Republic of China. So far this agreement has been renewed every two years and the expectation is that it will be renewed again this year.

The only detail that has been made public is that the Agreement allows the Pope final approval on Bishops appointed by the Chinese authorities, other than that it is cloaked in secrecy. But there have been occasions since its signing where the Communist Party have reneged on this Agreement, approving its own choice of Bishops.

There are an estimated 13 million Catholics in China, split between the official Chinese state recognised church and the underground church. And one of the Catholic Church’s most senior members, Cardinal Joseph Zen, the former Bishop of Hong Kong, has in the past, referred to this Provisional Agreement as betrayal of those in the underground church.

For the Pope, the Agreement is a pragmatic attempt to unify the church in China and make peace with the state, but the underground church see this Agreement as a sell-out by their spiritual father.

So on The Inquiry, we’re asking ‘Is Pope Francis ‘betraying’ China’s Catholics?’

Contributors: Martin Palmer, Theologian and Sinologist, UK Fr. Jeroom Heyndrickx, CICM (Scheut) Missionary, Belgium Samuel Chu, President, Campaign for Hong Kong, USA John Allen, Editor of Crux, Italy Presenter: William Crawley Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Matt Toulson Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Broadcast Co-ordinator: Jacqui Johnson

Image Credit: A worshipper waves the flag of China, as Pope Francis leaves the weekly general audience at St Peter’s Square in the Vatican. Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images.

Project 2025 is a blueprint for the next conservative president of the US. The think tank behind it, The Heritage Foundation, has published a book, ‘Mandate for Leadership’. It’s an anthology of ideas that suggest sweeping changes to federal government, presidential power and US involvement in global affairs.

Mandate for Leadership is a collection of policy ideas, written for any president to use once in office. Previous Republican administrations have implemented many of its action points.

Project 2025 is divisive. Many see it as a way to strengthen the US constitution, but others fear it will dismantle it and invest irreversible power in the president.

How might Project 2025 shape the US?

Presented by Charmaine Cozier Produced by Louise Clarke Researched by Matt Toulson Editor Tara McDermott Technical producer Nicky Edwards

Contributors: Don Moynihan, Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University in Washington DC

Jeff Anderson, the President of the American Main Street Initiative

Beau Breslin, Professor of Political Science at Skidmore College in upstate New York

Heather Hurlburt, Associate Fellow at Chatham House

(Image credit: AP)

Last year the Canadian province of British Columbia, launched a landmark three-year pilot programme on drug decriminalisation. For a number of years now communities across Canada have been facing their own opioid crisis, as drugs like fentanyl become more easily available.

Vancouver in British Columbia, has always been at the forefront of drug policy change, yet it has seen an explosion in overdose deaths due to toxic drugs in recent years. So the city readily adopted the decriminalisation programme as a measure to try and help reduce the death rates. But now just over a year since its implementation, that pilot programme has been scaled back, and it now means that people found with drugs on their person in public places can be arrested again. Can Canada overcome its drug overdose crisis?’

Contributors: Dr. Alexander Caudarella, CEO Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, Ottawa, Canada Kennedy Stewart, associate professor, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada Aljona Kurbatova, head of Centre for Health Promotion, National Institute for Health Development, Tallinn, Estonia Gillian Kolla, assistant professor, Memorial University, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Presenter: Charmaine Cozier Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Matt Toulson Editor: Tara McDermott Technical producer: Richard Hannaford

(Photo: Supervised consumption sites in the DTES. Credit: Gary Coronado/Getty Images)

Hundreds of monumental human shaped statues are motionless, and exposed to the elements, on Rapa Nui - also known as Easter Island. A name that dates back to 1722, when a Dutch explorer first saw it on Easter Sunday.

The statues, or Moai, were there centuries before that and are sacred to the Rapa Nui people.

They have also become a world famous tourist attraction and can be found in multiple outdoor locations across the small island. They are heavy and huge - sizes range from 1 to 20 metres tall. Some are upright on platforms, others are toppled over and broken.

Over the years, global weather has become more extreme and is having a devastating effect. Can the statues of Easter Island survive climate change?

Contributors: Sonia Haoa Cardinali, Archaeologist with the Mata Ki Te Rangi Foundation and coordinator of Easter Island's national monuments, Rapa Nui Roberto Rondanelli, Meteorologist and Climate Scientist at the Department of Geophysics, University of Chile Jo Anne Van Tilburg, Archaeologist and the Director of the Easter Island Statue Project Pilar Vicuña, culture programme officer, Unesco (Santiago de Chile),

Presenter: Charmaine Cozier Producers: Lorna Reader and Jill Collins Production co-ordinators: Liam Morrey and Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

The South China Sea is a major world shipping route bordered by a number of countries including China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, all of whom have staked claims to various zones in this vast expanse of water.

But tensions have grown in recent years between China who claim the majority of the South China Sea for themselves and the Philippines. Lately these tensions have escalated into a series of dangerous encounters as the two countries seek to enforce their right to disputed reefs and outcrops in these contested waters.

At the heart of this particular dispute lies a rusting warship, which belongs to the Philippine navy. It has been berthed on a submerged reef, the Second Thomas Shoal, since 1999, an outpost that the Philippine government claim belongs to them. The Sierra Madre is manned by a small Filipino crew who need a continual supply of provisions from the mainland, but the supply ships are encountering increasingly dangerous stand-offs with the Chinese coast guard in the South China Sea. The Chinese claim these encounters are just aimed at blocking an ‘illegal transportation’ of supplies. But there are concerns that this regional dispute could spark a wider conflict between China and the US, who are treaty-bound to come to the defence of the Philippines, should it come under attack.

So, on this week’s Inquiry, ‘What can a rusting warship tell us about tensions in the South China Sea?’

Contributors: Dr Hasim Turker, independent researcher, Istanbul, Turkey Professor Steve Tsang, director SOAS China Institute, London Professor Jay Batongbacal, director, Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, U.P. Law Centre, Philippines Gregory Poling, director South East Asia Programme and the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, USA Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Katie Morgan Technical producer: Richard Hannaford Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

(Photo: The Philippine ship BRP Sierra Madre in the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. Credit: Lisa Marie David/Getty Images)

The H5N1 bird flu virus has spread from birds to dairy cattle in the United States where a number of agricultural workers have also been infected by it. This is thought to be the first time humans have caught the virus from another mammal and the first time the virus has been detected in cattle.

This unusual development is being tracked by virologists who have followed Bird Flu since it first emerged in Hong Kong in the 1990s.

Since then, across the world millions of wild birds and poultry have died from the virus and over 400 human deaths worldwide have been linked to it. So it is a concern that the US outbreak has emerged in dairy cattle herds and that there has been some human infection - although there has been no person-to-person infection.

This Inquiry examines how the virus infects birds and mammals and what the potential is for further transmission to humans.

Contributors: Dr Erin Sorrell is a senior scholar and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University in the US. Professor Wendy Barclay studies viruses at Imperial College London in the UK Dr Ed Hutchinson is a virologist at the MRC University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research in Scotland Dr Marc-Alain Widdowson leads the high threat pathogens group at the World Health Organisation in Europe.

Presenter: Charmaine Cozier Producer: Phil Reevell Researcher: Katie Morgan Editor: Tara McDermott Sound: Nicky Edwards Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley

(Photo Cows queuing for their midway milking at United Dreams Dairy, in North Freedom, Wisconsin. Credit: The Washington Post/Getty Images

Since the CNN Presidential Debate in June 2024 headlines in the US calling for Joe Biden to pull out of the race have been relentless. There have been questions about his age, performance, and ability to run for a second term in the White House.

Biden’s ratings have slipped, and donors and party members have publicly said that Biden should step aside.

Joe Biden maintains he will not go and that he is the best person to beat would-be president Donald Trump.

He does still have staunch supporters and he was democratically elected as presumptive nominee by the electorate.

But with weeks to go before the Democratic National Committee meets to make Biden the official candidate, how easy would it be to find a replacement?

This week on The Inquiry we’re asking, can the Democrats replace Biden?

Presented by Tanya Beckett Produced by Louise Clarke Researched by Matt Toulson Production Coordinators: Ellie Dover & Tim Fernley Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Editor: Tara McDermott

Contributors:

Martha McDevitt Pugh, International Chair of Democrats Abroad

Elaine Kamarck, senior fellow in Governance Studies and the director of the Center for Effective Public Management at The Brookings Institution

Ed Kilgore, political columnist for New York Magazine

Hans Noel, associate Professor of Government at Georgetown University

Image Credit: Bloomberg\Getty