The Real Story

Free and fair elections are needed for democracy, and their manipulation has always been an issue. But with the advent of social media, has this problem now become unmanageable? Some argue that social media has levelled the playing field and opened up political space for people who previously had no voice. At the same time, there is plentiful evidence of foreign interference and the use of social media to spread disinformation in elections in the United States, Brazil, Kenya and India - to name just a few. So is it time for social media to be further regulated for the sake of democracy? Can technology companies be trusted to come up with their own solutions, or should governments intervene and make new laws? And if the state does step in, how can repression, surveillance and censorship be avoided? Celia Hatton and her guests delve into the murky world of social media during election campaigns.(Photo: A close-up image showing the Facebook app on an iPhone. Credit: Sascha Steinbach/EPA)

As evidence of climate change and mass extinctions becomes ever harder to ignore, a new tide of eco-activism is making waves. Schoolchildren across the world have been coming out on strike, with Swedish student climate activist Greta Thunberg meeting Pope Francis this week. Meanwhile, a movement calling itself Extinction Rebellion continues to occupy key locations in central London and elsewhere, stopping traffic, gluing themselves to things, even smashing the occasional oil company window. Their message is clear – they want action on climate change and they want it now. But the answers are not simple, and the approach can be divisive. So what are the best tactics and strategies for such an epic fight? Is the latest wave just a western phenomenon, or are the developing countries most at risk from climate change also on board? How important are arguments about social justice, and human rights? Are governments actually paying attention? And what lessons have been learnt from the eco-warriors of the past?Ritula Shah is joined by a panel of activists and experts to discuss the new green activism.Photo: An environmental campaigner is carried by police officers at Oxford Circus during the protests by Extinction Rebellion in April 2019 in London. Credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Has what’s happened since the Brexit referendum revealed serious problems with the way the UK is governed? Was the big mistake to have a referendum on such a complex issue in the first place, challenging the sovereignty of parliament and our representative system? Are UK politicians ignorant of the art of compromise, and if so, would proportional representation change the political culture? Do there need to be reforms, even a written constitution? Or is the problem not the system, but the failures of a few key people to understand the rules?Paul Henley is joined by a panel to discuss the UK's constitutional crisis.Picture: Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow during a debate on the second reading of the European Union Withdrawal (No. 5) Bill, April 3, 2019. Credit: Mark Duffy/AFP/Getty Images

Since the inception of the ICC 20 years ago it has been controversial. Supporters see it as a guarantor of justice, ready to step in when states are unable or unwilling to prosecute crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes. But to many the Court has now fallen from grace, having spent an estimated $1.7 bn but secured only three convictions for core crimes. The superpowers still show no signs of joining – with the US recently imposing sanctions on officials after the Prosecutor began examining US actions in Afghanistan. So is the ICC just on a long learning curve, at a time when support for multilateral institutions is on the wane? Will the Court ever convict sitting leaders, or citizens of powerful states? Has it already dangerously overextended itself? And if it has failed in its own terms to address impunity, can and should it survive?Ritula Shah is joined by a panel to discuss the health of the International Criminal Court.Picture: Fatou Bensouda, the ICC prosecutor. Credit: Reuters.

Battle lines have been drawn, alliances are being firmed up, and the electoral machine has kicked into action. With over 900 million eligible voters, the 2019 parliamentary elections in India will be the biggest exercise of democracy in the world. Voting will begin on 11 April and will be held in seven stages across India’s 29 states. Five years ago, the Hindu nationalist BJP won its first ever landslide victory, but can Narendra Modi’s party win again this time? The BJP says it is the party of economic success and national security, but it has also been widely accused of unleashing ethnic tensions and restricting human rights. The main opposition Congress party has accused the BJP of destroying India’s secular ideals, and say this vote is a battle for India’s soul. So what is at stake in India’s election? Ritula Shah is joined by a panel to discuss the challenges and choices facing India in this election year.Photo: Boy holding an Indian flag. Crediti: Saikat Paul/Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images)

The terror attack on Muslims worshipping in Christchurch, New Zealand has focused minds around the world on the threat from racist far-right extremists. The man responsible cited influences from the US and UK among others, and claimed to be motivated by white supremacist ideas. So, who are these extremists? What do they believe and why? And what role might politics and media play in planting the roots of extremism in society? Ritula Shah is joined by a panel of experts to discuss the nature and challenge of far-right extremism.(Photo: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hugs a female member of the Muslim community in Christchurch, 16 March 2019. Credit: Boris Jancic/European Photopress Agency)

The number of undocumented migrants captured at the US Mexico border has reached a decade-long high, with the government predicting that the number will continue to rise. President Trump says the situation at the border is a national emergency. So, is he right? Ritula Shah is joined by three expert guests to discuss what’s going on at America’s southern border. How many people are really crossing it. And - is the asylum system working, or broken, or just under strain?(Photo: Mexican children at the US border. Credited: Herika Martinez/AFP/Getty Images)

This week thousands of delegates from across China arrived in Beijing for the biggest political gathering of the year. But this time, the government’s message about the economy is less upbeat than it has been before. The growth forecast has been reduced, again. A new plan to boost the economy includes greater government spending, increasing foreign firms' access to the Chinese market, and billions of dollars in tax cuts. But will the measures work? There is more trouble on the horizon, as industries struggle to find skilled workers, and deal with the fallout of the trade war with the United States. Celia Hatton is joined by a panel of expert guests to discuss whether the Chinese economy is robust enough to weather the challenges.(Photo: A female worker in a textile factory in Lianyungang in China's eastern Jiangsu province, February 2019. Credit: AFP/ Getty Images)

What's next for the thousands of foreign women who have been living with Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria? The situation was highlighted after a British and an American woman expressed the desire to return to their countries of origin. With the Islamic State's rapidly shrinking territory, thousands of foreign born women - many with children - have fled the fighting and are sheltering in refugee camps. Ritula Shah and a panel of expert guests discuss what should happen to them now. Do they deserve to be resettled in their countries of origin? Or are their governments right to reject their citizenship? And what will happen to the children of IS fighters who have a right to reside in Europe or America?(Photo: A fighter with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces keeps watch near veiled women standing on a field in Syria by Fadel Senna / AFP/Getty Images)

This week was another dramatic one in the long-running saga of Brexit, with the possibility of a second referendum to solve the political impasse created by the first still widely discussed. Meanwhile on Sunday in Cuba, which is of course not a democracy, citizens will get to vote in a constitutional referendum that is expected to legitimise private business and open the door - if not positively support - gay marriage, and abortion has now been available in Ireland for two months, after Ireland’s ground-breaking vote last year. In a world in which referendums, plebiscites and citizens initiatives are more common than ever, are these forms of direct democracy really an answer to our political problems? Do they enhance or damage representative democracy? Do they satisfy an important right to be heard, or create deeper divisions in society? This week on The Real Story with Ruth Alexander we ask: Are referendums ever a good idea?

This week was another bad one for the environment, with a major scientific review predicting a mass extinction of insects within a century if current trends continue. Meanwhile, the news on climate change gets more alarming by the day. But when we talk about causes and solutions, do we often miss the big picture? Is the capitalist system underpinning the globalised economy the main culprit in both crises? If so, can those catastrophes only be avoided if capitalism is tamed, or radically reformed? Is the so-called Green New Deal the answer? Or is capitalism the only system that can produce the innovation we now desperately need? This week on The Real Story with Ritula Shah we ask: Is capitalism killing our planet, or is it our only hope?

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was a defining moment of the 20th Century. What began as a popular movement to oust the Western backed monarchy, later turned Iran into the world's first Islamic republic. Since then, the Iranian government has been accused of rights abuses, destabilising the region, supporting terrorists and trying to develop nuclear weapons. There have been waves of protests, for differing reasons, at home. And a recent upturn of economic optimism has vanished following President Trump's unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal, with the US reimposing far-reaching sanctions. But despite all the internal tensions and international pressure, the system has survived. How come? What kind of country is Iran today? And does the outside world really understand the country and its people? Ritula Shah is joined by a panel of experts to discuss the state of Iran, years after the revolution.

The United States and the Taliban say they have made significant progress towards ending the war in Afghanistan, with the deal expected to include a withdrawal of foreign forces. In return, the Taliban would agree not to shelter terrorists. But what will that mean for Afghan society? The Taliban’s denial of women's rights is well documented. With foreign forces gone, will women's hard-won rights survive? Can outsiders protect those rights once they have left, or is Afghan civil society now strong enough to take up the fight? This week Ritula Shah is joined by a panel of experts to discuss how the US pullout will leave Afghan women.

Sudan has been witnessing the biggest anti-government protests in years. They began over a month ago when the government announced plans to reduce subsidies on staples like bread and fuel. But a heavy-handed response by the authorities has led to dozens of deaths and hundreds of arrests. Many are now calling for the resignation of president Omar al-Bashir. With the demonstrations becoming a regular feature across the country, is president Bashir facing the most serious threat to his power? This week, Ritula Shah, is joined by a group of experts to discuss Sudan's popular anger.

Donald Trump’s first foreign trip as US president was to Saudi Arabia - and this week his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the Kingdom. Despite increased strains on the relationship, including the controversial war in Yemen and the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Trump Administration has shown no signs of breaking with Riyadh. Is this fully explained by the trade in oil and arms – or are other factors at work? How important is a shared antipathy to Iran? Are human rights always expendable when trade and strategic interests are in the mix? And why and how did the two countries become so entwined? This week Celia Hatton asks a panel of experts what is keeping the United States and Saudi Arabia close.

It's an old question, but despite many estimates - based on Frank Drake's famous equation - that our own Milky Way galaxy could contain up to a million alien civilisations, the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence begun in 1961 has so far failed. Funding for SETI - as it's known - has also been a problem, although private money has partly filled the gap. But SETI scientists are now hopeful that, after a 25-year pause, the US Congress will mandate NASA to spend ten million dollars a year, for the next two years, renewing the search.And it's not all about intelligence, as everyone agrees the discovery of life of any kind on another planet would be astounding - with some of the most exciting developments in this field much closer to home.This week on The Real Story we ask a panel of space scientists: are we any closer to finding extra-terrestrial life? What new approaches are showing promise? How will we know if we've found it? And what might that life be like?(Photo: VLA Radio Telescope, New Mexico. Credit: Education Images/UIG/Getty Images)

How do you look ahead in a world which constantly takes us by surprise, sometimes shocks us, often makes us ask 'what happens next?' Who would have predicted that President Trump would, to use his words, fall in love with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, whose country he had threatened to totally destroy? Who could have imagined that a prominent Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, would be murdered and dismembered in a Saudi Consulate? And, on a happier note, we’re relieved that, as the year ends, a climate change conference in Poland did manage to save the Paris pact, and maybe our world. The BBC's chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet talks to correspondents from around the globe about what might happen in the world in 2019. Guests: Katya Adler, Europe editor Yolande Knell, Middle East correspondent James Robbins, Diplomatic correspondent Steve Rosenberg, Moscow Correspondent Jon Sopel, North America editor Producer: Ben Carter Editor: Penny Murphy(Image: King Mohammed VI, Melania Trump, Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte Macron. Credit: EPA/BENOIT TESSIER / POOL MAXPPP OUT)

After weeks of protests and violence, France's President Emmanuel Macron has bowed to the yellow vests protestors. First he made an televised address to the nation in which he admitted he had made mistakes. Now he has issued a new budget with financial giveaways. It is not just that he has been spooked by weeks of demonstrations - not unknown in French life - but also that protestors have enjoyed high levels of public support. Their demands combine elements from the left and the right: calls for huge increases in government spending and in wages, coupled with the halving of taxes and tough restrictions on migration. But behind these demands, some people detect the grievances of France's left-behinds, either in small towns or in the countryside, and those at the wrong end of globalisation. Ruth Alexander and a panel of experts discuss Macron's options. Can his concessions satisfy the yellow vests, and if not, where does he go from here? The protestors want to have little to do with politicians but are they playing in to the hands of Marine Le Pen and the far right?

In 2014, the Chinese government issued a document aimed at increasing the amount of 'trust' in society. Today this emerging system is known as China's social credit system - like a credit score but tracking more than financial transactions. China's central government wants to have the system in place across China by 2020, using a range of information -- including shopping habits, driving fines and even what's written on social media -- to rate and rank individuals. People with poor scores could find themselves unable to get bank loans or buy plane tickets. Advocates claim that a system is necessary in a country where few people have credit ratings. But detractors see it as a kind of dystopic super-surveillance. Celia Hatton and a panel of expert guests weighs up the costs and benefits of social credit.(Photo: A Chinese woman walks along the street holding a broom and dustpan. Credit: Getty Images)

There's only one question in Britain these days: what will happen with Brexit? On Tuesday, the future of the country is at stake when the British parliament takes a historic vote on the withdrawal deal that the Prime Minister, Theresa May, has negotiated with the European Union. As it stands, the odds are on parliament voting the deal down. And with the clock to Britain's exit from the EU ticking down, the consequences of the Prime Minister losing the vote are far from certain. Could she go back to Brussels and get a better deal? Could the government fall? Could those who have been hoping to stop Brexit altogether finally get a new referendum? And, what happens if Britain crashes out of the EU in March 2019 with no deal? Chris Morris and a panel of experts discuss the costs and benefits of May's deal, no deal, no Brexit - and everything in-between.

On Saturday, Mexico gets a new president. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador - or AMLO as he's known. He won a landslide victory and now controls both houses of Congress. Born in poverty, AMLO is promising to eliminate corruption, champion the poor, and stand up to big business. His vision is not just government as usual but Mexico's 'fourth transformation', a kind of national renewal. He has already cut his own salary and that of senior civil servants and he has spooked the financial markets by cancelling Mexico City's new airport. But how realistic is his vision? The country is the second most unequal in Latin America, parts of it are controlled by drug traffickers and gripped by violence. And in his first week in power he'll have to deal with the migrant protest on the US border. So, will he change Mexico or will Mexico change him? Ritula Shah and a panel of expert guests profile Mexico's new president and discuss his vision and the challenges he faces.

The largest money laundering scandal yet uncovered has been back in the spotlight. 200 billion Euros were allegedly laundered through a tiny Estonian branch of the Danish Danske Bank between 2007 and 2015. The whistleblower who first alerted Denmark's biggest bank to the problem testified in front of the Danish parliament this week. Once upon a time, money laundering meant setting up pizzerias as fronts and building blocks of flats to rent. But things have become more sophisticated. Today's perpetrators are smurfing - investing small amounts in many small businesses, moving dirty money around with crypto currencies and setting up companies within companies within companies. Ruth Alexander and a panel of expert guests discuss how money laundering is done and the ways the authorities can take control of the problem.(Photo: Rolled up US dollars. Credit: Getty Images)

In the two years since the election of Donald Trump the world has heard a lot about 'fake news'. It's a term the president often uses to go after the media and his opponents. But 'fake news' can mean a lot of things. It can refer to inaccurate stories pumped out to generate online ad revenue. It can also describe the sort of political disinformation that Russia used to try to influence the 2016 US election. While propaganda and disinformation have been deployed at home and abroad for centuries - Hitler and Stalin were past masters - the internet has made the dissemination of such lies much easier. So, if trust in information corrodes, what happens to democracy? Ritula Shah and a panel of experts look at what fakes of all kinds are doing to our public life and what solutions are available.(Photo: Fact or Fake concept, change wooden cube. Credit: Getty Image)

Germany, the biggest and richest country in the European Union, is going through a period of considerable political turbulence. After Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, the CDU, performed badly in state elections, she said she would not seek re-election. Much has been said about the threat posed to her party from the right by the emergence of the Euro-sceptic anti-immigrant AfD. But there's another emerging force - the internationalist and environmentalist Greens. In the recent elections in both Bavaria and Hesse, the Greens came second with a big gain in seats - and polls now have the party polling in second place nationally. Paul Henley and a panel of experts discuss what's behind the rise of the Greens and what it means for the country at the heart of Europe.

As the world’s population continues to rise, the numbers of children born per woman is still falling. Worldwide there’s now around 2.49 live births per woman, not far above replacement rate. Many couples are choosing to have smaller families and contraception is helping. But meanwhile, infertility in both men and women, in rich and poorer countries, is increasing. Fifty million couples worldwide cannot have children without medical help. So, what is going on? Celia Hatton and a panel of expert guests discuss why so many men and women are struggling to have children. Are they simply leaving it too late or are other factors, such as diet or pollution, having an effect?(Photo: Couple in consultation with a doctor. Credit: BSIP/UIG/Getty Images)

This weekend, if the polls are right, Brazilians are expected to elect an obscure far-right politician as their next president. Jair Bolsonaro has spent over 20 years in Congress in a variety of fringe parties to very little effect. Now he is promising to root out the corruption that's endemic in Brazilian politics and crack down on crime. Brazil has some of the highest murder rates in the world and Bolsonaro wants to loosen gun laws and make it easier for the police to shoot to kill criminals. His opponents accuse him of supporting extra-judicial killings as well promoting homophobic and misogynistic views. Ritula Shah and a panel of expert guests looks at what Jair Bolsonaro is proposing for Brazil. How has he come to prominence? Who are his backers? And can a man who speaks so fondly of Brazil's military dictatorship really be trusted with its democracy?

In many democracies people are demanding attention based on their identity, on their race, sex, or sexual orientation. We see groups such as Black Lives Matter, or movements for white power or LGBT rights. Are these demands for redress legitimate — assuming their claims are credible — or do they undermine social cohesion by attacking a sense of shared belonging? Is the increase in identity politics a danger for democracy? Or is ‘identity politics’ a new name for an old fact, a name given by the powerful to belittle the struggles of the powerless? As the US mid-term elections approach, Ritula Shah and a panel of experts examine identity politics, left and right, and ask whether identity politics corrodes or empowers democracy.(Photo: Counter-protesters march at the University of Virginia, ahead of the one year anniversary of the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right protests, in Charlottesville, Virginia, US. Credit: Jim Urquhart/Reuters)

On Monday the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its latest report. The IPCC looked at keeping to a 1.5C rise above pre-industrial temperatures. Scientists say that we can still do it. But there's a lot of work to be done. It will need "rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society". It will also mean a major reallocation of funds. It will cost about 2.5% of global gross domestic product (GDP), every year for twenty years. But how is that going to happen? While the cost of wind turbines and solar panels have fallen, the global economy still relies on burning fossil fuels. Will politicians grasp the nettle and make the changes outlined in this report or will they, and we private citizens, ignore it and wait for disaster to strike? This week on The Real Story Ritula Shah looks at the economics and politics of climate change. Do developed countries have to give up growth to mitigate climate change? Can democracies sell the necessary sacrifices to their citizens? And will new technology save the day?Image: A woman walking through floodwaters in front of the Grand Palace near the Chao Praya river in Bangkok in October 2011 (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

We know that to keep our climate safe we need to stop burning fossil fuels and move to renewables. But how? Leading scientists and government delegates have been asking that question this week at a gathering in South Korea. Perhaps inspiration can be found in Tromso, in the Norwegian Arctic. Norway sees itself as a leading opponent of climate change. It already generates most of its electricity from hydropower and it's looking to turn some of its mountains and rivers into a giant green battery, storing power generated by wind turbines and solar cells elsewhere in Europe, then sending electricity back when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind blow. But Norway is still a major oil exporter. While its North Sea fields begin to run dry, Norway is continuing to dole out exploration permits for the Arctic waters. Ritula Shah and a panel of experts and politicians in Tromso debate Norway's energy future and ask what lessons the country has for the rest of the world.(Photo: Midnight sun over the Arctic Ocean at Svalbard, Spitsbergen, Norway. Credit: Arterra/UIG via Getty Images)

Air is all around us. It's invisible and most of the time we don't think much about it. But when the air is polluted, it's deadly. Even when it doesn't kill us, polluted air increases respiratory illnesses, strokes, and Alzheimers; it may even be making us dumb. Air pollution is behind the deaths of at least 4.5million people a year worldwide, the vast majority harmed by tiny particles of soot emitted by burning fossil fuels in cars and factories or by burning wood or coal for cooking. So what can we do? Ritula Shah talks to health and public policy experts about the risks posed by polluted air. How can we clean up our air to have healthier bodies and brains and build better communities?

Twenty years after the signing of The Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland, Brexit has unleashed new uncertainty about the island's future. In 2016 the UK voted to leave the European Union but Northern Ireland voted to remain. Irish nationalists in the north are unhappy about the possibility that controls on the land border with the Republic of Ireland could return. Supporters of a united Ireland have seized on this to argue that by joining the Republic, Northern Ireland would be able to get back into the EU. The Good Friday Agreement includes a provision for a referendum on unification known as a border poll. Whether nationalists could win is unclear but a mixture of worries about Brexit and demographic change suggest a future border poll would be much tighter than would have been the case ten years ago. Ritula Shah and a panel of experts discuss whether Brexit has opened the door to a united Ireland.(Photo: Farmer standing on the border separating Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Credit: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Ten years ago the US investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed. The event rocked global stock markets and led to the biggest financial crash since the Great Depression. The decade that followed has been extraordinary. We've seen anger and discontent as living standards have fallen in large parts of the developed world. There's been political upheaval with the election of Donald Trump and the UK's vote for Brexit, while populists and demagogues have gained power across Europe. Ritula Shah and a panel of experts discuss the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis: low growth, a fragile global economy and a transformed political landscape. And, in the event of another crash, would governments have the ideas, the resources, and the goodwill to pull the global economy back from the brink?

For years Sweden has been praised for its generous welfare state and the welcoming hand it held out to refugees. But things are changing. Sweden is approaching the end of its most closely fought election in decades. Polls predict that the long dominant Social Democrats will get the largest share of the vote but not enough to govern alone. As in other European countries, significant numbers of the old working class are turning to an anti-EU anti-immigrant party. The Sweden Democrats are socially conservative, talking tough on immigration, and helped by recent criminal incidents that some are pinning on immigrants. They could get enough support to influence the country's future. President Trump has long been tweeting about Sweden, claiming "large scale immigration" there isn't working. But what's the evidence? Is Sweden suffering from an epidemic of crime caused by immigrants? Has it failed to assimilate the people it welcomed in? Or are these at best half-truths deployed in a tough election campaign? Ritula Shah and a panel of experts discuss whether Sweden has turned its back on its social democratic past?

Nearly 25 years on from independence the vast majority of South Africa’s farmland is still owned by the country’s white minority. But now the governing ANC is coming under pressure to change that. In the past the government has tried to find “willing sellers” but that’s only led to the redistribution of 10% of farmland. Now the government is considering more controversial moves. President Cyril Ramaphosa his indicated he would introduce a change to the constitution to allow, if necessary, land expropriation without compensation. White farmers are furious. Investors are worried too. They look at what has happened in neighbouring Zimbabwe where land seizures turned what was the breadbasket of Africa into an agricultural basket case. President Trump, too, has got involved, tweeting that he asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to look into “land and farm seizures” and "killing of farmers", prompting South Africa to accuse Mr Trump of stoking racial divisions. Paul Henley and a panel of expert guests discuss South Africa’s struggle with land reform.

LSD, magic mushrooms, mescaline, peyote - just some of the most well known psychedelic drugs. Most of them are illegal around the world. Research into psychedelic medicine was virtually shut down in the West because psychedelics were considered mind-altering substances open to abuse. This perception is changing. There is a growing body of evidence that some psychedelic drugs can be used to treat a variety of medical conditions. There have been clinical trials of psilocybin - the active ingredient in magic mushrooms - for treatment-resistant depression. Just one dose was found to help people with life-threatening cancer face death. James Coomarasamy and a panel of expert guests discuss the evidence that psychedelics have transformative and beneficial properties. Are most authorities right to continue to ban them or should they be considered for wider use - and if so, under what conditions?

People around the world continue to want a nation to call their own. There have been recent independence referendums in Kurdistan, Catalonia and Scotland. This trend has being going on for a century, as empires have given way to nation states, and those states have further subdivided. For much of the 20th century this made sense. Politics, the economy, and communications were mostly organised at a national scale. National governments had actual powers to manage modern economies. But after many decades of globalisation, have economies and information grown beyond the authority of national governments? How good are nation states at dealing with trans-national threats such as terrorism, migration or global warming? Carrie Gracie and a panel of expert guests discuss whether the nation state is in decline. And if so, what might replace it?

In many parts of the world this has been a season of extreme heat. Records have been broken from North America to Europe, from the Middle East to Japan and Korea. We know the climate is changing, and that many of the reasons are man-made. International commitments to limit the average rise in global temperature - to less than two degrees above pre-industrial levels - demand concerted action around the world. Chris Morris and a panel of expert guests discuss the science behind extreme heat. What are the political solutions and the new technologies that may be able to help us? And even if we can mitigate against extreme temperatures, are heatwaves going to become the new normal?(Photo: Cameroonian Girl sweating and drinking water from a green jerry can. Credit: Getty Images)

It has been over seven years since the uprising in Syria turned first into a civil war and then into a proxy war that has drawn in countries near and far. During that time at least 350,000 people have been killed, over 5 million have fled the country, and over 6 million have lost their homes. The war has seen sieges, artillery barrages and airstrikes on civilian neighbourhoods, hospitals and schools. With the help of Iran, Russia and Hezbollah, the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad has recaptured the major cities. His enemies are, as ever, divided. Rebels cling on to enclaves near the Turkish border in the north and in the north-east the Kurdish dominated SDF still controls about a quarter of the country. But in the south, the Syrian government has this week retaken Deraa province where the uprising began in 2011. So is the war coming to an end? Or is it entering a new phase? This week on The Real Story Chris Morris and a panel of expert guests discuss the Syrian war, how long does it have to go and how can the country start to rebuild?(Photo: A house burns after Syrian forces shelled it with heavy artillery in the besieged town of Douma by Muhammad Al-Najjar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

On Monday Zimbabwe will hold elections - the first to take place since former President Robert Mugabe was forced to stand down by the military after nearly 40 years in office. Under his rule the southern African country went from being one of the brightest economies in the region to one of the weakest. Opposition parties were repeatedly frustrated at the polls with violence and intimidation. The country is currently being led by former minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, nicknamed "the crocodile", who is leading public opinion polls. Julian Marshall is joined by government, opposition and expert guests to discuss whether these elections represent a clean break with the Mugabe years and what it will now take for Zimbabwe to attract the investment needed for stability, prosperity, and jobs.(Photo: A man wears a Zimbabwean flag after a rally by Movement for Democratic Change leader and opposition presidential candidate, Nelson Chamisa. Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

It has been a torrid week for US-Russian relations. Days after Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for interfering in the 2016 US presidential election, President Trump met President Putin in Helsinki. In an extraordinary press conference Mr Trump said he preferred to believe Mr Putin rather than US intelligence agencies when it came to accusations of Russian meddling in the US election. Mr Trump’s comments have caused outrage across the US political spectrum – and led to a rare climb-down from Mr Trump, who said he ‘misspoke’. Next week Mr Trump’s former campaign chief Paul Manafort goes on trial for tax evasion. Mr Trump’s links with Russia have long dogged him but will they now damage him? He has made it clear that he sees the Mueller investigation as biased, in his words ‘a rigged witch hunt’. With the US mid-term elections on the horizon, the fate of the Mueller investigation and Mr Trump’s political future both hang in the balance. Ritula Shah looks at the Mueller investigation and asks what it is doing, what has it discovered, and whether it is political.(Photo: Special counsel Robert Mueller leaves after a closed meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Donald Trump has arrived in England but he's not getting the red carpet treatment a US president might expect. Big protests are planned in London, featuring a march to Trafalgar Square and a six metre high balloon of Donald Trump as a snarling orange baby. The protests may let people vent their feelings about the US president’s controversial style and policies, but few expect much change as a result. So, while protests still occupy a prominent place in the drama of democracy, do they really achieve anything anymore? How have cultural forces and social media changed the way protests are organised? And can non-violent protests still force elected politicians to change?Presenter: Ritula Shah

Poland is one of Europe's economic success stories - and after Brexit, Poland stands to become the EU's fifth-largest state. France and Germany had hoped Poland would work with them to find solutions to the EU's big challenges, such as migration. But Poland is taking a different path. Since taking power in 2015, the Law and Justice Party has attacked EU institutions and criticised the German government in particular for being too welcoming to migrants. Tensions came to a head this week with the implementation of a new law in Poland that requires judges to retire when they turn sixty-five. The European Commission has accused Poland of undermining the independence of its judiciary and has launched legal action against the government in Warsaw. So, is Poland implementing necessary reforms or slipping towards authoritarianism?

"The fragility of the EU is increasing," says EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, and, "the cracks are growing in size." The cracks appear in many forms. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel says migration is the issue that "could decide the EU's fate." Her French counterpart, President Emmanuel Macron, wants urgent economic reform and a "profound transformation" of the EU. His solution in part is to "give Europe back to its citizens." But what do European citizen want? Some want out, as seen in Brexit. Many others don't like the way the EU is currently run. That's behind the rise of Eurosceptic governments in Hungary, Poland, and now Italy. Can the gap be closed between French hopes and German fears? Who has the will and the wherewithal to reform the EU before another political or economic crisis engulfs it? And if no change comes is the EU's very survival at risk?(Photo: EU flag billows all tattered and torn. Credit: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

Images of crying children separated from their parents at the US border with Mexico have brought a new urgency to the migration debate in the US. After a week of intense scrutiny on the issue, President Trump signed an executive order so that families apprehended trying to enter the US illegally would not be split up while criminal proceedings took place. In Europe, too, the migration debate is testing governments. This week, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, went to battle with her Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer, over whether migrants at the German border should be turned away if they had registered elsewhere in the EU. So, as the UNHCR says the world is experiencing record levels of migration, should countries get tougher or adjust to the new reality? Are public concerns justified, or are they fanned by populists hoping to make political gains?

What is Donald Trump thinking? In one week he calls Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ‘dishonest and weak’ and then proceeds to boast of his ‘terrific relationship’ with the dictator Kim Jong-Un. In just a few days, he riles America’s closest allies at the G7 summit and then signs a nuclear deal with the country considered one of the biggest threats to international security. The president’s critics say he is tearing up the rule book without considering the consequences. His supporters say a new approach to international diplomacy is long overdue. So which is it? Has President Trump decided to abandon the military and political alliances that structured the post-World War II liberal order – or is he simply reminding old allies not to take the United States for granted? Is ‘the West’ dead – or is the alliance mutating into one where the US has more space to put itself ‘first’. On the Real Story this week, Ritula Shah and a panel of guests considers how we have arrived at this great disruption of the international order – and where the world is heading.(Photo credit: Reuters)

All eyes will be on Russia shortly as it hosts the FIFA World Cup, one of the world's great sporting occasions. The country will get a boost as tourists visit Russia's many far flung cities and spend freely in hotels and restaurants. But staging the event is not cheap. Russia will be spending at least $12 billion at a time when its economy is suffering from sanctions. And - once the teams and their fans leave, the clean-up is expensive and the legacy uncertain. This week Ritula Shah and a panel of experts ask what's to gain from hosting the beautiful game's greatest showcase.

After nearly three months of negotiations and disputes, Italy has a new government. The country that road-tested Trump-style populist politics before the Donald has handed power to a pair of anti-establishment parties, The League and the 5 Star Movement. Italy's president, Sergio Mattarella, had blocked the coalition's choice of finance minister, Paolo Savona, claiming his views imperilled Italy's position in the Eurozone. But the coalition has backed down. Its new choice for finance minister has been accepted by the president. Nonetheless, Italy is entering uncharted waters. Its coalition is unhappy with the Eurozone's rules and Italian voters are looking for relief from unemployment, a massive debt, and what the 5 Star Movement calls "the sea taxi service" bringing migrants to Italy's shores. Ritula Shah and a panel of politicians and analysts unpick what lies behind Italy's divisions and discuss whether Italians are ready to risk leaving the Eurozone. (Photo of two boys on a bicycle carrying the Italian flag. Getty Images)

Ebola is back. In 2014, it killed over 11,000 people in West Africa. Now the disease has struck once again in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This time doctors are better equipped, with a vaccine and immunisation campaign but the outbreak highlights the ever-present dangers posed by infectious diseases. One hundred years ago the Spanish flu killed over 50 million people in just one year. And doctors now say the next pandemic will be upon us in a matter of decades. We don't know where it will start but in a hyper-connected world we know it will spread easily. Ritula Shah asks a panel of expert guests about the scenarios that keep them up at night and whether global health infrastructure is ready for the coming pandemic.

Hundreds of millions around the world will watch live coverage of the latest British Royal wedding. Queen Elizabeth's grandson Prince Harry is marrying Meghan Markle, an American actress. Divorced and biracial, she wouldn't have been considered British princess material 50 years ago. But times have changed and the British monarchy has had to change with them. The popularity of the Harry-Meghan match appears to show a recipe for a successful modern monarchy - equal parts tradition and change. So, is that the formula to keep constitutional monarchies afloat in Britain, Western Europe, and the Arab World? Ritula Shah and a panel of guests explore the forces working against monarchies and discuss how they manage to survive. (Photo of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle by Eddie Mulholland - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

"This was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made," said President Trump as he pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal. "It didn't bring calm, it didn't bring peace, and it never will." So what now for Iran, for the stability of the Middle East, and for future nuclear deals? So far Iran's President Rouhani has reacted cautiously but will the country's hardliners force him to resume enriching uranium, paving the way for a nuclear weapon? How will Iran's regional rivals Israel and Saudi Arabia react? Can the European Union, Russia, and China still keep Iran within the deal? And if they can't, what will the effect be on the outcome of any future nuclear deals. That's The Real Story with James Coomarasamy this week.