Finland’s Parliament has overwhelmingly endorsed joining Nato, while Sweden’s ruling party has broken with 200 years of neutrality to follow their Nordic neighbours in jumping on the alliance bandwagon.

The Ukraine War has forced this profound geopolitical moment - but why are the Finns more keen on the move than the Swedes?

In today’s podcast, we travel to Helsinki.

In April 2015, a victim was stabbed 13 times in a park in Leicester town centre.

The case was solved with the help of CCTV, but that’s not the end of the story. 

The parents of the man convicted for the crime insist this was a case of mistaken identity. They also believe racial bias caused their son’s misidentification on CCTV.

Forensic experts have also raised serious concerns about the quality of CCTV analysis in the criminal justice system as a whole. 

In today’s episode we speak to Channel 4 News producer, Zahra Warsame, about how she learnt about the case, how CCTV evidence is used in the criminal justice system and why it could be contributing to innocent people being put behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit. 

Producer: Freya Pickford

For the first time in 101 years, a nationalist party is in the majority in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin said the country was entering a “new era” as they overtook the DUP.

It’s a seismic moment in Northern Irish history.

Today, our policy correspondent Paul McNamara looks into how we got here - how Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol has divided unionists, and how yet further stalemate is perhaps why many people are tired of the old nationalist/unionist labels and just want centrist politics that gives them a functioning government.

Producer: Rachel Evans

The European Union has had many different names but it’s always had one goal: a united, peaceful Europe.

That has usually meant closer political and economic ties.

But for some it has also meant getting closer on defence and security and for some that in turn has meant the creation, one day, of a united European army.

So has the war in Ukraine shifted the dial towards a European army?

In today’s episode with Elisabeth Braw, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, talks us through the history as well as the pros and cons of any future united army for the EU.

Sources: EuroNews, France 24, Newsnight, Sky News

Produced by: Joe Lord-Jones

Other than the smog we can see it’s sometimes impossible to visualise what some call the ‘invisible killer’.

Channel 4 News was shown new modelling which suggests the majority of UK households are in areas which break the World Health Organization's own guidelines on dangerous air pollution levels.

In today’s episode, we speak to reporter Keme Nzerem who originally broke this story, about the politics of air pollution, why it’s damaging to our health and its links with poverty.

Producer: Freya Pickford

Ecuador has become the new frontline in an escalating drug war.

And ordinary people are the ones paying the price as the country’s murder rate doubledlast year.

Rival drug cartels have taken over Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil, in a bid to control lucrative new drug routes to Europe and the United States.

Our reporter, Guillermo Galdos, visited the once peaceful city for Unreported World, and spent two weeks with the local police, who are now outgunned and outnumbered.

Today, Krishnan talks to Guillermo about what has driven Ecuador to become a major player in this bloody turf war and what can be done to stop it.

Warning: this episode contains content some may find disturbing.

Sources: CGTN

Produced by: Rachel Evans

More than 1 million people in the UK are on Hormone Replacement Therapy or HRT and the vast majority of them are women who need it to deal with menopause symptoms. 

But a shortage of specific types of HRT has left women struggling. In this episode of The Fourcast we speak to Kate who had a hysterectomy at 44 which caused her to go into surgical menopause about what life is like with and without HRT.

We also speak to our Health and Social Care Editor, Victoria MacDonald about why, as demand for prescriptions has more than doubled since 2017, supply of some products has not kept up. 

If you have been affected by the issues raised in this report, help and support is available at channel4.com/support.

Sources: Channel 4: Davina McCall: Sex, Myths and the Menopause and Davina McCall: Sex, Mind and the Menopause

Produced by: Nina Hodgson

It’s the news that was everywhere for one day and then sort of faded away. A bit like a viral tweet you might say, it dominated, and then we just scrolled on.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, reached a deal to buy Twitter.

The right were happy, the left were mad. And Twitter was the perfect place for everyone to sound off.

But the deal isn’t done and there’s still a long way to go.

We talk to our Washington Correspondent, Siobhan Kennedy, about who exactly is the man behind this mega takeover. We also talk to the former head of news at Twitter, Vivian Schiller, about free speech, the law and social media.

Sources: Sky News, TED, Fox News, CNN

Produced by: Freya Pickford

Giving your second-hand clothes to a charity shop or recycling centre is surely a good thing, isn’t it?

Well some of those items, which eventually end up abroad, are causing an environmental disaster in West Africa. 

Slums and beaches are overflowing with clothes from countries such as the UK that can’t be sold. 

And this is affecting everything from the livelihoods of the traders to the seafood eaten across the entire west coast of Africa.

Today, Krishnan speaks to reporter Ashionye Ogene, who has been to Ghana for Unreported World to see first-hand how the West’s addiction to fast fashion is destroying livelihoods as well as leaving a mark on the country’s landscape for hundreds of years to come. 

Producer: Rachel Evans

Sources: ITV News, CBS News

As the war in Ukraine enters its third month and Russia begins the new phase of its invasion, where does this all end? Or moreover, where is it heading?

Russia says it's focusing on the east and south, but why the missile strikes in Odessa?

And what does Russia want now and what can it even get, given that the Ukrainians feel emboldened as the Western powers increase their support?

Today, our international editor Lindsey Hilsum reports from eastern Ukraine as she unpicks the messaging and the military movements in the war.

Sources: AP 

Produced by: Nina Hodgson