The Inquiry BBC Podcasts

The South China Sea is a major world shipping route bordered by a number of countries including China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, all of whom have staked claims to various zones in this vast expanse of water.
But tensions have grown in recent years between China who claim the majority of the South China Sea for themselves and the Philippines. Lately these tensions have escalated into a series of dangerous encounters as the two countries seek to enforce their right to disputed reefs and outcrops in these contested waters.
At the heart of this particular dispute lies a rusting warship, which belongs to the Philippine navy. It has been berthed on a submerged reef, the Second Thomas Shoal, since 1999, an outpost that the Philippine government claim belongs to them. The Sierra Madre is manned by a small Filipino crew who need a continual supply of provisions from the mainland, but the supply ships are encountering increasingly dangerous stand-offs with the Chinese coast guard in the South China Sea. The Chinese claim these encounters are just aimed at blocking an ‘illegal transportation’ of supplies. But there are concerns that this regional dispute could spark a wider conflict between China and the US, who are treaty-bound to come to the defence of the Philippines, should it come under attack.
So, on this week’s Inquiry, ‘What can a rusting warship tell us about tensions in the South China Sea?’
Contributors:
Dr Hasim Turker, Independent Researcher, Istanbul, Turkey
Professor Steve Tsang, Director SOAS China Institute, London
Professor Jay Batongbacal, Director, Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, U.P. Law Centre, Philippines
Gregory Poling, Director Southeast Asia Programme and the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, USA

Presenter: Tanya Beckett
Producer: Jill Collins
Researcher: Katie Morgan
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott
Image: The Philippine ship BRP Sierra Madre in the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea.
Credit: Lisa Marie David/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

The H5N1 bird flu virus has spread from birds to dairy cattle in the United States where a number of agricultural workers have also been infected by it. This is thought to be the first time humans have caught the virus from another mammal and the first time the virus has been detected in cattle.
This unusual development is being tracked by virologists who have followed Bird Flu since it first emerged in Hong Kong in the 1990s.
Since then, across the world millions of wild birds and poultry have died from the virus and over 400 human deaths worldwide have been linked to it. So it is a concern that the US outbreak has emerged in dairy cattle herds and that there has been some human infection - although there has been no person-to-person infection.
This Inquiry examines how the virus infects birds and mammals and what the potential is for further transmission to humans.
Contributors:
Dr Erin Sorrell is a senior scholar and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University in the US.
Professor Wendy Barclay studies viruses at Imperial College London in the UK
Dr Ed Hutchinson is a virologist at the MRC University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research in Scotland
Dr Marc-Alain Widdowson leads the high threat pathogens group at the World Health Organisation in Europe.
Presenter: Charmaine Cozier
Producer: Phil Reevell
Researcher: Katie Morgan
Editor: Tara McDermott
Sound: Nicky Edwards
Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
(Photo Cows queuing for their midway milking at United Dreams Dairy, in North Freedom, Wisconsin. Credit: The Washington Post/Getty Images

Since the CNN Presidential Debate in June 2024 headlines in the US calling for Joe Biden to pull out of the race have been relentless. There have been questions about his age, performance, and ability to run for a second term in the White House.
Biden’s ratings have slipped, and donors and party members have publicly said that Biden should step aside.
Joe Biden maintains he will not go and that he is the best person to beat would-be president Donald Trump.
He does still have staunch supporters and he was democratically elected as presumptive nominee by the electorate.
But with weeks to go before the Democratic National Committee meets to make Biden the official candidate, how easy would it be to find a replacement?
This week on The Inquiry we’re asking, can the Democrats replace Biden?
Presented by Tanya Beckett
Produced by Louise Clarke
Researched by Matt Toulson
Production Coordinators: Ellie Dover & Tim Fernley
Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards
Editor: Tara McDermott
Contributors:
Martha McDevitt Pugh, International Chair of Democrats Abroad
Elaine Kamarck, senior fellow in Governance Studies and the director of the Center for Effective Public Management at The Brookings Institution
Ed Kilgore, political columnist for New York Magazine
Hans Noel, associate Professor of Government at Georgetown University
Image Credit: Bloomberg\Getty

The European Union is made up of 27 sovereign member states and has several governing institutions. On 1 July 2024, Viktor Orbán’s government will hold the presidency of the Council of the European Union for six months.
This diplomatic role may present its challenges because Hungary takes a divergent view from centrist colleagues in a few areas, two of them being climate policy and support for Ukraine. And in the past Hungary has used its veto to stall votes on policies that support Ukraine.
After recent European elections hard-right parties now have a greater presence in the European Parliament and they have different priorities from their more centrist counterparts. The question is how the far-right, together with Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the EU, can alter the direction of European politics.
Presenter: Tanya Beckett
Producer: Louise Clarke
Researchet: Matt Toulson
Sound engineer: Richard Hannaford
Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott
Contributors:
Pawel Zerka, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations in Paris
Thu Nguyen, deputy director of the EU policy think tank the Jacques Delors Centre in Berlin
Dimitar Bechev, from the School of Global and Area Studies at the University of Oxford and Senior fellow at Carnegie Europe
Marta Mucznik, senior EU analyst for International Crisis Group
(Photo:Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Mihaly Orban. Credit: Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

Artificial Intelligence is something that’s all around us in our daily lives. And even if we do use it, whether that’s to search for a recipe online, make a funny photo, or ask it to help with our homework, every task that AI does uses power. That power is electricity.
Around the world there are thousands of data centres hosting computers that process all our requests. And as those tasks get more sophisticated, and AI becomes Super Intelligent, they will need even more electricity.
But as Super AI develops, could it become so intelligent that it is able to solve the very problems it creates?
Contributors:
Dr Mark Van Rijmenam, a strategic futurist
Kate Crawford, research professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research in New York
Sam Young, AI Manager at Energy Systems Catapult
Rose Mutiso, research director of the Energy for Growth Hub
Presented by David Baker
Produced by Louise Clarke
Researched by Katie Morgan
Edited by Tara McDermott
Technically Produced by Craig Boardman

The Caribbean country of Haiti has been blighted for years by groups of armed gangs, who have proved more than a match for the national police force, who have struggled to confront them.
Now as the country descends further into lawlessness, a response to Haiti’s plea for international assistance may finally be at hand, in the form of a United Nations backed multi-national security force led by Kenya and supported financially by the United States. This East African country has volunteered to lead the mission with their own elite police unit, to help Haiti’s transitional authorities restore order. But the Kenyan government’s decision to involve itself in another country’s problems has raised some questions back home about the deployment.

So, on this week’s Inquiry, we’re asking ‘Why is Kenya getting involved in Haiti?’
Contributors:
Robert Fatton Jr, Emeritus Professor of Politics, University of Virginia, USA.
Dismas Mokua, Political Risk Analyst, Tricarta Advisory Limited, Nairobi, Kenya
Professor Karuti Kanyinga, University of Nairobi Institute for Development Studies, Kenya
Michelle Gavin, Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, USA
Presenter: Charmaine Cozier
Producer: Jill Collins
Researcher: Matt Toulson
Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards
Production Coordinator:Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott
Image/Credit: Haiti awaits the arrival of Kenyan led international security support mission, Port Au Prince/ORLANDO BARRIA/EPA-EFE/REX Shutterstock via BBC Images