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 Pew Foundation released a US poll which suggested 88% of scientists think GM food is generally safe to eat, while only 37% of the public agree. It is the issue on which American scientists and the general public are most divided, more so than climate change or vaccines. If the scientific consensus says it is safe, should we embrace a technology that could help solve hunger and feed the world? Or is GM food a lightning rod for justified concerns about the impact of global agribusiness and industrial food production?

(Photo: Ripe wheat in a field. BBC copyright)

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 incomplete and erroneous representations”.

Many have argued that world football’s governing body is badly in need of reform. So, as Fifa prepares to elect its next president, our question this week: who can fix FIfa? Sponsors and broadcasters provide the vast majority of the body’s income. Could they force change? Fifa relies on the support of regional organisations like Uefa to maintain its hold over world football. Could they put pressure on Fifa’s leadership? Or could the key be new laws in Switzerland, where Fifa is based? And what are the chances of change from within? Examining evidence from experts who know Fifa outside and in, The Inquiry has answers. Presenter: Helena Merriman. (Image:Member of the media wait next to a logo of the Worlds football governing body. Credit:MICHAEL BUHOLZER/AFP/Getty Images)

Recent high profile cases of unarmed black men dying at the hands of the US police have sparked outrage, protests and civil unrest in several American cities. The deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott and Freddie Gray are – some claim – evidence of long-standing problems with police racism and excessive violence. But what do we really know about what’s happening? Our expert witnesses this week explain the issues of racism, bias and police use of force. And the head of President Obama’s taskforce on police reform, Charles Ramsey, tells us that fixing the problem will involve much more than just fixing the police.

(Photo: Demonstration in St Louis, Missouri, following the shooting of Michael Brown. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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 where high unemployment is a big concern - and an example of the gaping chasm that remains between rich and poor. So 21 years after Nelson Mandela pledged to liberate all South Africans from the continuing bondage of poverty and deprivation, why is South Africa one of the most unequal societies on the planet?

(Photo: South African man waves a stick in the air, while demonstrators are chanting. Credit: Stefan Heunis/Getty Images)

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 countries prepare for an all-out cyber attack. The former US Secretary of Defence, Leon Panetta, has said “there's a strong likelihood that the next Pearl Harbor could very well be a cyber attack that cripples our power system or our grid, our security systems, our financial systems, our governmental systems. This is a real possibility in today's world”. But how real is the threat of cyber warfare? Four expert witness help us separate fact from fiction.

(Photo:Binary code cyber war. Credit: Profit_Image/Shutterstock)

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 17,000 fewer children are dying every day. Unicef has described the improvement as “one of the most significant achievements in human history”. But progress has been uneven. We look at one of the unexpected stars of the race to tackle child mortality – Rwanda – which, between 2000 and 2015, achieved the highest average annual reduction in the under-five mortality rate in the world. How did Rwanda do it? And could other nations follow its example?

(Photo: Children Smiling Credit: Wlablack / Shutterstock)

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 the causes are complex and confusing. The Houthi rebels are from Yemen’s north, and are now laying siege to the southern port of Aden. Are these geographical rivalries the key?

The Houthi are Shia Muslims, supported by Iran. The rest of Yemen is mostly Sunni Muslim, and Saudi Arabia is leading a bombing campaign against the Houthi forces. So is this a sectarian conflict, or even a regional proxy war? And the Houthis have allied with former President Saleh, against Yemen’s current leader who replaced him in the transition after Yemen’s 2011 revolution. Are the roots of the current conflict in the failure of that revolution to deliver progress? Four expert witnesses help to disentangle this complex web and explain what the conflict in Yemen is really about.

(Photo: Houthi supporters demonstrate against recent UNSC sanctions. Credit: Yahya Arhab/European Photopress Agency)

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 nations to give up trying to get the bomb, but it also committed nuclear-weapon states like Russia and the US to pursue disarmament. Progress has been made. Overall stocks of nuclear warheads have dropped significantly. But is that the whole story?

Both the US and Russia have committed huge sums – over a long timescale – to modernise their arsenals. One expert tells The Inquiry that these modernisation programmes amount to a new nuclear arms race - one which is creating a new generation of less powerful but more accurate weapons. Some argue that such ‘tactical’ weapons are more likely to be used. Another expert witness tells us that the failure of nuclear-weapon states to disarm threatens the NPT itself. And we hear disturbing testimony about the nuclear stand-off between India and Pakistan and a terrifying account of a largely forgotten incident in 1995 when the world came within two minutes of nuclear annihilation.

(Photo: Explosion nuclear bomb in ocean. Credit: Romolo Tavani/Shutterstock)

Ahead of a historic meeting between Cuba’s President Castro and US President Obama, The Inquiry asks if the island nation’s warmer relations with America are a betrayal of its revolutionary past. More than half a century ago, Che Guevara became a global icon after he fought alongside Fidel and Raul Castro to overthrow an American-backed government and put into practice their socialist ideals. Now Raul Castro has made a deal with the Americans and the lifting of the long-standing economic embargo of Cuba is becoming a realistic prospect. We delve into Che Guevara’s past, the changes already happening in Cuba under Raul Castro and the Obama administration’s motives, to answer the question - what would Che say?

(Photo: Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in the mid 1950s. Credit: Getty Images)

It seems something is missing from newspapers and TV bulletins - climate change. A story which dominated the news five years ago has dropped steadily down the agenda. One study has found coverage has dropped 36% globally in that time. Why? On The Inquiry this week we hear a tale of chronic political fatigue. We ask whether our hunter-gatherer brains simply aren't wired to think long-term. And we find out why climate change has all the hallmarks of a story likely to make newspaper editors groan. It could be – as one of our expert witnesses tells us – time to "change the narrative".

(Image: A man places his hand on the parched soil. Credit: Press Association)

Who has authority in Tibet? Many Tibetans revere the Dalai Lama and support his goal of greater autonomy from Beijing. But officials there hold the opposite view. For them, he is a villainous traitor. Both sides agree that the role of Dalai Lama has been filled for centuries through reincarnation. The current one will turn 80 this year and Beijing is keen to control the process of finding his reincarnation. But he has said that the role will one day end. Better to have no Dalai Lama than “a stupid one,” he said. His comments sparked a furious reaction from Beijing this month. So, will the Dalai Lama reincarnate? Guests include a spokesman for His Holiness and a Chinese analyst in Beijing.

Forty-four years after President Nixon declared “war on drugs”, four US states have now agreed to legalise the sale of marijuana and a majority of Americans supports legalisation. Across the world, drug laws are being relaxed, from Uruguay to Portugal to Jamaica to the Czech Republic. Does this global trend mean the war on drugs has been lost? The Inquiry hears from expert witnesses including an ex-president and a former prosecutor who now defends drug traffickers.

(Photo: A person rolling a joint of cannabis. Credit: Press Association)