The Inquiry

Perhaps the most striking feature of the global financial crisis has been that no top banking executive has been successfully prosecuted for their role in bringing it about in the first place. The period covered by the statute of limitations is running out so it is conceivable none ever will. Yet the word 'fraud' appears 157 times in the final report of the US Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. So why are we not seeing prosecutions and prison terms, as in previous financial scandals? Guests include a former prosecutor, a law professor, an economist and a recently-retired US Senator.(Image: Shutterstock - Val Lawless)

Mexico is gripped with the story of 43 student protesters who vanished in September. They were allegedly killed on the orders of a mayor who wanted to prevent them from attending a rally where his wife was due to speak. The mayor and his wife have been arrested but no case has been proven against them in court. The story has fuelled nationwide demonstrations about the relationship between government and organised crime. The government says it is taking the problem seriously and points to falling murder rates and the arrest of a number of drug barons in recent years, as evidence that Mexico is winning the war against the cartels. Guests include an investigative journalist who has had run-ins with the cartels, a former Mexican intelligence analyst who says he is obsessed with stopping the violence and a prominent public intellectual with a long view of the patterns of power in Mexico.

Vladimir Putin certainly knows how the West views his actions in Ukraine. Sanctions have been in place against Russia for months. There is talk of toughening them. At the G20 meeting in Australia he was rebuked by Angela Merkel, Stephen Harper and other leaders, before flying home early. But are sanctions having any real effect on the Russian president? Are they likely to force him to change course in Ukraine? We hear from a top Moscow economist Natalia Orlova, a Putin loyalist in Vladivostok, veteran European diplomat Sir Robert Cooper and Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs and a close Putin-watcher.(Photo: President Vladimir Putin. Credit: AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Hong Kong's government is preparing to clear the streets after weeks of protest. The demonstrators want direct talks with Beijing over who gets on the ballot for the 2017 Hong Kong election. But there is more than politics at play. China has had almost a generation to win hearts and minds in Hong Kong - a time when the mainland population has become increasingly nationalistic. What has gone wrong in Hong Kong? Our four experts tell a story of snobbery, arrogance and perhaps unrealistic expectations on both sides. Helena Merriman presents.

Outbreaks are inevitable, pandemics are optional,” says Dr Larry Brilliant, a leading figure in the successful global campaign to eradicate smallpox.But does the flawed international response to the Ebola outbreak suggest it is now less likely that the world will come together to defeat diseases with pandemic potential?The Inquiry meets Dr Brilliant and other expert witnesses: Dr Malik Peiris, who identified SARS; Dr Julie Gerberding, president of the Vaccine division at Merck; and Ian Goldin, formerly of the World Bank.Presenter: Helena Merriman Producers: Charlotte Pritchard and Neal Razzell Editor: Richard Knight

The sudden rise of Islamic State in June shocked the world. It now controls a swathe of the desert in Syria and Iraq and has declared a caliphate. Iraq’s second city, Mosul, has fallen to the militants and they are menacing the capital, Baghdad. Western powers and their Gulf Arab allies have responded with war planes and bombs. The American general in charge of the campaign says it is buying time for the Iraqi Army to regroup and counter attack. But what would a long-term plan to defeat Islamic State look like? The Inquiry’s panel of experts have some thought-provoking ideas.