The Compass

Calls for the return of objects, looted from around the world are growing ever louder. Actor and musician Kema Sikazwe travels to London to see the Broken Hill Skull at the Natural History Museum. At the launch of the Return of the Icons campaign, V&A director Tristram Hunt explains how he is responding to Ethiopia’s formal restitution claim. Children’s author, Kandace Chimbiri describes how her writing fills gaping historical hole and French art historian Didier Rykner is convinced that President Macron’s approach, is fundamentally flawed. Should priceless parts of history be returned? And if so, what’s at stake? Theme music composed by Kema Sikazwe aka Kema Kay(Photo: Presenter, Kema Sikazwe in front of the Broken Hill Skull (which Zambia is trying to have repatriated from the UK) at the Natural History Museum. Credit: Will Sadler)

Actor and musician Kema Sikazwe is no historical expert. A young Zambian who now lives in northern England, he hasn’t even set foot inside a museum since he was ten years old. All that changes when Kema learns about the movement to return stolen objects back to where they came from. Should these priceless parts of history be returned? And if so, what’s at stake? Kema measures the scale of the problem on a visit to Newcastle’s Great North Museum. Curator JC Niala shares her experience of seeing a photograph of her grandfather on display in a Kenyan exhibition, and Kema’s father tells him about an ongoing dispute between Britain and Zambia.Theme music composed by Kema Sikazwe aka Kema KayProgramme produced by Scattered Pictures

Because of its war history, Germany remains frightened of being assertive on its own. Yet it holds the key to enabling Europe to become the third global pole to China and America. This programme looks at Germany’s current place in the world: the facts, the psychology and the consequences. John Kampfner visits Duisburg in the gritty Ruhr area with its ambition to become “China City”. He goes to the former East, where businesses are desperate for closer ties with their former ally, Russia. He discusses the dilemmas Germany faces in its dealings with Russia: tensions over the poisoning of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and questions over the completion of the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. He looks at the pressure Germany is under to increase defence spending, and asks whether the country is ready to be more assertive and to take its place on the world stage. And then there is the question of what Germany represents. Today, one quarter of those living there have a non-German ethnic back

As governments around the world rethink their economies and societies after Covid, addressing the environment, towns and cities and the way we live, is it possible that Germany is closer to finding the answers?In this programme, John Kampfner looks at where they’re getting it right, and where they are going wrong. The contradictions are many. Why is a country with one of the most powerful and longest-established green parties struggling to meet its climate emissions targets? Given their strength in engineering and science, why have they fallen behind on some of the basics of tech? And in spite of the emphasis on social responsibility, why have there been so many high-profile corporate scandals? There’s another curiosity. It’s sometimes called 'entschleunigung' - work-life balance. But it’s more than that. Germans have generally shunned what they see as the sharp-elbowed culture of the Anglo-Saxon world. Where else would the disused Tempelhof airport in the centre of Berlin be kept for the enjoyment of local

A year ago, many Germans were dismissing Angela Merkel as beyond her sell-by date. Her motto, "langsam aber sicher" (slow but sure), was seen as outdated. Covid has transformed that. It is not that she has particularly changed, it is just that the world has come to respect traits that had previously been derided. Germany has now dealt with three crises with extraordinary agility – from unification 30 years ago, to the influx of a million refugees in 2015 and now the pandemic.John Kampfner looks at these crises and how Germany and Merkel have responded to them. Through the experiences of people across the country, he finds that there is much that can be learned from the way Germany faces its challenges. Is Angela Merkel’s true strength as Germany’s Chancellor her ability to handle a crisis?

Will Robson investigates the impact climate change is having on human security in Central and Northern America. He examines how global warming is leading to mass migration across the region, and how a spike in freak weather events is undermining basic social infrastructures. He also hears why the avocado has become a “conflict commodity” in Mexico, and how climate change threatens the resilience of the USA’s power grid and its nuclear weapons arsenal.

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report identified the Sahel as a ‘climate change hot spot’, a region where human security is particularly threatened by the effects of global warming. Will Robson explores the area’s war-torn history and investigates how climate change is acting as the catalyst to migration, violent disputes over water and the growth of brutal armed extremists. He hears from those caught in the middle of conflicts in Mali and the Lake Chad region and discovers how drought and rapid desertification are fanning the flames of violence. Produced by Simon Jarvis and Tom Roseingrave. A Whistledown Production for the BBC World Service.

Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at more than twice the global average, and as the ice pack melts, battle lines are being drawn between global superpowers eager to lay claim to newly uncovered mineral resources and trade routes.Will Robson examines the ratcheting up of tensions between Russia and the United States, as a growing number of military bases, missile tests and military exercises threaten the area’s stability.He also reveals how China has entered the fray – labelling itself as a “near-Arctic state” and investing in icebreakers and scientific research in an effort to gain access to the “polar silk road” – an increasingly ice-free and potentially profitable trade route across the Arctic ocean. Is the area set to become the battleground for a new Cold War?

India and Pakistan are on the front line of climate change and are two of the most water-stressed countries in the world. Drought has already caused violent clashes, deadly protests and a spate of farmer suicides. Now tensions between the two nations have been ratcheted up by an acrimonious dispute over a proposed dam on the River Indus. Will Robson looks at how these conflicts over mankind’s most precious resource threaten the stability of the whole region. He starts at the local and interprovincial level, where the absence of formal dispute resolution mechanisms has led to an escalating threat of violence. He will also explore the geopolitical tensions surrounding the Indus River that runs from China through India and Pakistan, and at how climate change is threatening to derail historical treaties between these nuclear armed states.

In a five-part series for the Compass, former Army Major Will Robson investigates how climate change is fuelling conflict across the globe, from guerrilla raids on farmer-herders in Africa to a chilling new Cold War in the Arctic. He’ll be speaking to both climate and conflict experts to unravel the complicated threads that connect climatic changes, violence, war and global insecurity. In the first episode, he focuses on what has often described as the first climate change war – the conflict in Darfur in Western Sudan – and hears from farmers and pastoralists who have returned to their war-ravaged lands to try to rebuild among the challenges of desertification and climate change.Image: Internally displaced Sudanese people prepare to collect water from a tap near their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan April 26, 2019 (Credit:Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters)

Neurologist Dr Guy Leschziner explores the extraordinary sensory experiences of individuals with synaesthesia - a mash-up of senses where one sense automatically triggers another. Some synaesthetes hear colours, others feel sound.We meet James who perceives the world differently from most people, due to his brain’s unusual wiring. Whenever he hears a word he immediately gets a taste and texture in his mouth. As a child, he’d go by train to school with his mum, reading out loud the stations they passed through. His favourite was Tottenham Court Road because the word sounds taste of sausage, crispy fried egg and toast. Whilst James tastes words, 23 year-old synaesthete Valeria sees colours and feels textures when she hears music. She assumes everyone has that sensory experience until, at aged 14, she sees her dad’s astonished reaction! For Valeria, some music is so utterly exquisite it causes her intense, physical pain. Such variations in perception can also affect our internal world as Sheri, a paint

Imagine spraying yourself with a flowery fragrance but all you can smell is rotting flesh? Our senses can be surprisingly strange, especially when they malfunction due to injury, disease or genetic abnormalities. In this episode, neurologist Dr Guy Leschziner, explores two senses, smell and taste - separate yet inextricably linked. We meet Joanne, whose sense of smell is so distorted after a heavy cold, even freshly-cut grass smells repulsive. We also hear from Walter who loves to cook and eat German cuisine but finds that pleasure is ruined when everything, even fine wine, tastes of metal. By contrast, 15 year-old Abi’s sense of taste is working properly. She can tell if her food is sweet or salty. But Abi was born without a sense of smell (anosmia), which also means anything she eats has no flavour – because that’s created by smell and taste working together. Loss of smell, an early symptom of coronavirus, has raised awareness of this important, yet neglected sense, often only appreciated when it’s go

From a whisper to the roar of thunder, every sound creates vibrations in our ears which the brain decodes, to tell us what we’re hearing. But as neurologist, Dr Guy Leschziner explains, when disruptions occur along the way, extraordinary things can happen, changing how we perceive the world. We meet Mark, who can’t hear his friends in a noisy pub but can hear the sound of every bodily function amplified in his head. Kelly gets spinning attacks that send her falling to the floor. The sensation lasts for hours and with every attack she loses hearing. She’s been told it’s Ménière's disease - an inner ear disorder that affects balance. Keen bird-watcher Bill recognises his hearing loss when he can no longer pick out the call of the smallest birds, but can hear elaborate musical tunes when there’s nothing playing.These astonishing cases show how tiny changes in our bodies can turn our understanding of the world upside down, leading us to question our own version of reality.Produced by Sally Abrahams for the BB

Vision is a complex process involving light rays, special nerve cells and electrical signals sent to the brain, which processes the information and tells us what we’re seeing. But even tiny disruptions to any part of this system can result in remarkable visual problems. Neurologist, Dr Guy Leschziner, meets 25-year-old filmmaker Oli, who’s only recently discovered something alarming: he’s missing half his vision in one eye - probably caused by a stroke he never knew he had. We hear from Dawn, whose eyes are working properly and yet she’s almost completely blind. Her visual problems are caused by damage to a vital nerve connecting her eyeballs and her brain. Susan describes how her epilepsy is causing visual distortions that mean she can see through a person as if they were transparent. And we meet Nina who’s been robbed of her sight after two separate accidents. And yet, she sees colours and terrifying images of zombie faces. She discovers she has Charles Bonnet Syndrome – visual hallucinations caused by

Our skin contains millions of nerve endings and touch sensors that collect information about different sensations like temperature, pressure, vibration, pain and send it to the brain for processing and reaction. But it’s when our sensory system goes wrong that we learn most about how our senses help us understand the world around us. Neurologist Dr Guy Leschziner talks to Alison, whose delicious seafood dinner sends her nervous system haywire. Poisoned by fish contaminated with ciguatera toxin, her sense of temperature is turned upside down – so hot feels cold and the cold floor tiles burn the soles of her feet.We hear from Dawn, whose damaged nerve triggers excruciating pain down the side of her face – illustrating how our senses can trick us about the source of our agony. We meet Paul, who has broken every bone in his body, yet never feels a jot of pain. His rare genetic condition, congenital insensitivity to pain, means his brain never receives signals warning of damage to his flesh and bones. A

What will the world look like post-Covid? In an age of increasingly inward focus can a spirit of multilateralism prevail to meet the challenges posed by the reconstruction of national economies as well as the needs of poorer countries and the international organisations? And does the post-Coronavirus moment provide an opportunity to think differently about other global challenges, the foremost being climate change? Will we be able to “build back better”? Ian Goldin, Oxford University’s professor of globalisation and development draws on his experience as economic advisor to Nelson Mandela and vice president at the World Bank to argue that the gravest threat to humanity in a generation could be turned into an opportunity. But the challenges are many. He discusses them with - among others - pandemic expert Larry Brilliant; Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz; the editor of The Economist, Zanny Minton Beddoes; and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the chair of GAVI, the vaccine alliance.

How should governments respond to the pandemic? The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc both to health systems and economies. Above all it has served to expose inequalities both within nations and between them. Hardest hit are countries in the developing world, where government finances do not permit the level of support to citizens or the private sector that has been provided by richer governments. Ian Goldin, professor of globalisation and development at Oxford University, sees the crisis as marking a turning point in relations between the state and the private sector. Even so, he asks whether governments are doing enough to address the economic impact of the pandemic and the resulting inequalities. He hears powerful testimony from his guests who include the economist Joseph Stiglitz, novelist and activist Arundhati Roy, Achim Steiner, the head of the United Nations Development Programme, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the chair of GAVI, the vaccine alliance. Producer: Tim Mansel

Why did coronavirus strike so fast and so hard? There was plenty of warning that a pandemic was inevitable, but when a new virus emerged in a wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the world proved powerless to prevent it spreading. The finger has been pointed in various directions: a failure by the Chinese authorities to communicate, a sluggish response from the World Health Organisation, an ignorance of history, and what Ian Goldin, professor of globalisation and development at Oxford University, has termed the ‘Butterfly Defect’ of globalisation. In this episode, Professor Goldin explores what he sees as the complacency of governments and a declining commitment to multilateralism as reasons for the new pandemic and its unprecedented economic consequences. He hears from, among others, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva; the man who identified the Ebola virus, Peter Piot; and the historian Margaret MacMillan. Producer: Tim Mansel

The Hubble space telescope has transformed our view of the universe and put our lives on Earth into a truly cosmic perspective. As we celebrate thirty years of Hubble’s achievements, we look to the future of the space telescope and the potential of its ambitious successor. Hubble has produced a multitude of scientific discoveries, but it has also influenced our culture, art and music. It’s easy to forget that following its April 1990 launch, the space telescope was derided as NASA’s greatest failure. A faulty mirror meant it only produced blurred images and a daring Space Shuttle mission had to be scrambled to fix it. Hubble’s successor, the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), has had a similarly troubled start. Due for launch next year, the JWST has come close to being cancelled several times. Its budget has rocketed from $1 billion and it’s faced a succession of delays. With a final location 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, fixing any mistakes won’t be an option. But if it succeeds, the J

Tech companies now find themselves in the firing line of free speech debate. To what extent can they duck the issue given their global coverage? Is it up to them to police what people say from the dangerous privacy of their own keyboards? And with truth and fake news being trumpeted by the highest powers in many lands can they be held responsible for drawing the lines in debates about what should or shouldn’t be said, posted or tweeted?And at the heart of the series is a desire to test the absolute conviction of those who would espouse free speech and see it as a basic human right?(Photo: Social media apps on a phone. Credit: Getty Images)