Josh Toussaint-Strauss

"Cruising is booming – 2023 ticket sales have surpassed historic levels and 2024 has seen the launch of the largest cruise ship ever built. "But as cruise tourism's popularity has increased, so have the pollution problems it brings. To customers, it may not be evident that any problems exist, since some cruise line companies claim to be becoming more climate-friendly. "The truth can be quite different. Josh Toussaint-Strauss interrogates what impact the world's biggest ships are having on the planet."

"Controlling the Arctic has long been an ambition of Soviet and Russian leaders. "And it's not hard to see why: the Arctic contains vast deposits of untapped fossil fuels, it is of huge strategic importance militarily and represents an emerging trade route between Asia and the west to rival the Suez canal. But Russia is not the only country with designs on the Arctic. Canada and Denmark have also staked a claim and, in military terms, Nato is bearing down on all sides. Yet Vladimir Putin is closer than any of his predecessors to gaining control of the polar region. Josh Toussaint-Strauss explores how Russia is trying to entrench its claim to the Arctic."