The Inquiry

This year, technology has more influence in officiating sports than ever before.
At the men's World Cup, the role of virtual assistant referee technology (VAR) has been extended to include two more on-pitch scenarios while in tennis, umpires use electric line calling systems (ELC) to make final decisions.
Both bits of kit aim to improve the accuracy. It’s become easier to consider match-defining moments through these tracking and review systems’ specialised cameras. But, this information takes human officials valuable time to analyse.
Football fans criticise VAR for this reason, saying it delays match momentum. Top ranking tennis players Aryna Sabalenka and Alexander Zverev have also complained as these systems are not yet infallible. If technology is as imperfect as a human referee or umpire and can interrupt the fan experience too, why do elite sports rely on it?
This week on The Inquiry we’re asking, ‘Is technology ruining sport?’
Contributors
Carlo de Marchis, independent advisor in sports and media technology in Italy
Dr Otto Koblinger, former sports scientist, Munich Technical University, Germany and senior data manager, Saudi Pro League
Professor Odilon Roble, sport philosopher and psychoanalyst, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
Matt Moore, associate dean, University of Kentucky’s college of social work, US
Presenter: Tanya Beckett
Producer: Evie Yabsley
Researcher: Amelia Cox
Editor: Tom Bigwood
Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards
Production Management: Phoebe Lomas and Liam Morrey
(Photo: VAR check. Credit: Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

A new directive strives to narrow the 11% hourly wage gap between men and women in the EU.
Around the world, the gender pay gap has been shrinking as women gain access to higher education and better employment opportunities. Though varied hours, industries and care responsibilities make this inequality a difficult problem to tackle with one universal policy.
Member states have just passed their deadline to implement measures that will hold employers to account for pay disparities in the workplace so will pay transparency solve the persistent gap?
We are joined by Emma Duchini, assistant professor of economics, University of Essex, UK; Marianne Bertrand, professor of economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, US; Adamnesh Bogale, head of gender, African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), Ghana and Marina Tverdostup, economist, Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, Austria.
Presenter: Charmaine Cozier
Producer: Evie Yabsley
Researcher: Amelia Cox
Technical Producer: Toby James
Editor: Tom Bigwood
Production management: Phoebe Lomas and Liam Morrey
(Photo: A woman typing)

In May 2026, the World Health Organization declared an Ebola outbreak in western Africa a public health emergency of international concern. Within days, hundreds of cases had been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo, raising fears that the virus could spread further across the region.
Ebola has been causing outbreaks for nearly 50 years, but despite advances in vaccines and treatments, the disease continues to return. But why is it so difficult to treat and contain?
This week on The Inquiry, we’re asking: “Why does Ebola keep coming back?”
Contributors:
Syra Madad, infectious disease epidemiologist at the Harvard Belfer Centre, US
Hypolite Muhindo Mavoko, professor of tropical medicine at the University of Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo
Amanda Rojek, associate professor of health emergencies at the University of Oxford, UK
Julienne Anoko, risk communication and community engagement officer at the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, Kenya
Presenter: Tanya Beckett
Producer: Matt Toulson
Researcher: Evie Yabsley
Technical producer: Nicky Edwards
Editor: Tom Bigwood
Production management: Phoebe Lomas and Liam Morrey
(Photo: Ebola awareness banner in Democratic Republic of the Congo. Credit: Glordy Murhabazi/Getty Images)

In 2001, Portugal decriminalised the possession and use of all illicit drugs. It was a move designed to mitigate the country’s public health crisis, which at the time meant Portugal had one of the worst rates of overdose deaths in Europe, as well as the highest rate of HIV among drug users. Whilst drugs remained illegal, users did not receive a criminal record but were instead referred to rehabilitation and treatment programmes. It was an approach that proved so successful, that it has remained in place for a quarter of a century.
But just over 10 years after its introduction, Portugal’s drugs policy started to come under strain as the country’s economic crisis and subsequent austerity measures led to budget cuts for drug services. More recently the rising cost of living has diverted people’s attention from investment in this field. On top of this, the trafficking of cocaine and newer substances into the country along with changing demographics is putting decriminalisation under strain.
So, on The Inquiry this week, we’re asking ‘Is Portugal’s drugs policy in need of reform?’
Contributors:
Joana Teixeira, President of the Board of Directors, Institute for Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (ICAD), Lisbon, Portugal
Luís Mendão, Director General, Grupo de Ativistas em Tratamentos (GAT), Lisbon, Portugal
António Leitão da Silva, Chief of Police, Braga, Portugal
Keith Humphreys, Esther Ting Memorial Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, California, USA
Presenter: David Baker
Producer: Jill Collins
Researcher: Evie Yabsley
Technical producer: Toby James
Editor: Tom Bigwood
Production management: Phoebe Lomas and Liam Morrey
(Photo: Discarded syringes and drug paraphernalia. Credit: Andy Buchanan/AFP)

At the beginning of this year Bulgaria, considered as one of the poorest countries in the European Union, became the latest to officially join the eurozone. Bulgaria’s legal tender since 1881 had been the lev, but since the mid-1990s it had been pegged to other European currencies, first to the German deutschmark and now to the euro. But it remains to be seen if the country’s economic policy can take advantage of the opportunities that joining the single currency can afford, in terms of trade and economic development.
Monetary unions are not a new concept, some like the Scandinavian monetary union date back to the 19th Century, involving Denmark, Sweden and Norway. It established a fixed exchange rate system based on the gold standard, whilst member countries still had their own currencies before it was gradually dissolved from the outbreak of World War One onwards.
Today, the biggest monetary union is the eurozone, used by around 358 million people across 21 European Union countries. It has one monetary authority for all the members and a standardised currency and coinage.
And now the Economic Community of West African States, known as Ecowas is actively planning a monetary union with a common currency called the eco and pegged to the euro. The ambition is for greater economic sovereignty and regional economic integration.
But with the US dollar as the world’s dominant global reserve currency, even though it is not part of a global monetary union, is there an argument for one currency across all borders and if so, what should it be?
Contributors:
Assoc Prof Ralitsa Simeonova-Ganeva, Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski, Bulgaria
Prof Barry Eichengreen, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Prof Mohamed Ben Omar Ndiaye, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal
Dr Judy Shelton, Senior Fellow, The Independent Institute, California, USA
Presenter: Charmaine Cozier
Producers: Daniel Rosney and Jill Collins
Researcher: Evie Yabsley
Sound engineer: Toby James
Editor: Tom Bigwood
Production management: Phoebe Lomas and Liam Morrey
(Photo: Euro and US dollar banknotes)