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Can Indonesia afford free lunches?
Children in Indonesia are now receiving free school meals — part of a bold new plan by President Prabowo Subianto to tackle malnutrition. Around one in five children in the country are stunted, meaning they are too short for their age. The lunch programme is central to Prabowo’s vision of a “Golden Indonesia” – a prosperous, high-income nation by 2045. But not everyone is happy. To fund this and other populist pledges, the president has reallocated billions in public funds, cutting budgets from ministries including health and education. There have also been reports of food poisoning linked to the programme. Meanwhile, millions of Indonesians are struggling. The International Monetary Fund warns the country's unemployment rate will rise to 5% this year — the highest among the Southeast Asian economies it tracks. On this week’s Inquiry, we’re asking: ‘Can Indonesia afford free lunches?’ Contributors: Dini Widiastuti, Executive Director, Yayasan Plan International Indonesia Julia Lau, Senior Fellow and Coordinator, Indonesia Studies Programme, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore Dr Suman Chakrabarti, Associate Research Fellow in the Nutrition, Diets, and Health Unit, International Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, India Bhima Yudhistira, Executive Director, Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS), IndonesiaPresenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Vicky Farncombe Researcher: Maeve Schaffer Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Production Management Assistant: Liam MorreyImage Credit: Dimas Rachmatsyah via Getty Images
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How are drones changing the landscape of modern warfare?
When the war in Ukraine began back in February 2022, the remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle or drone as its commonly known, was peripheral to the conflict. But three years on, the drone in all its shapes and sizes has taken on a central role in this battle, in the air, on land and at sea, for surveillance, reconnaissance, combat and other purposes. Now drone technology is evolving even further into the area of autonomous weapons. But whilst the drone can offer greater strategic and operational flexibility and a possible reduction in the number of military casualties, there are concerns that the drone, particularly in Ukraine’s case, has prolonged the war. Only last year the United Nations reported that 118 countries now had military drones, along with at least 65 non-state actors. And as an increasing number of countries have begun to manufacture and export their own array of military drones, many are concerned about how drone technology is presenting a big challenge in terms of defensive measures. So, on this week’s Inquiry, we’re asking ‘How are drones changing the landscape of modern warfare? Contributors: James Patton Rogers, Author and Executive Director, Brooks Tech Policy Institute, Cornell University, New York State, USA. Dr Oleksandra Molloy, Senior Lecturer in Aviation, University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia Stacie Pettyjohn, Director of the Defence Programme, Centre for A New American Security, Washington DC. USA. Dr. Elke Schwarz, Professor of Political Theory, Queen Mary University, London, UKPresenter: Gary O’Donoghue Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Maeve Schaffer Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Toby James Production Management Assistant: Liam MorreyImage credit SOPA via Getty Images
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What does Syria’s recent conflict tell us about al-Sharaa’s presidency?
In July, a brutal highway hijacking in southern Syria sparked tit-for-tat clashes between Druze and Bedouin fighters. During the week-long violence, over a thousand people were killed and more than 125,000 displaced. Syrian government forces and Israel also entered the conflict.The latest hostilities come less than a year after Syrians celebrated the end of dictatorship and the promise of renewal. The resurgence of sectarian violence raises urgent questions about interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s leadership and whether his government can truly unify a fractured nation.What does Syria’s recent conflict tell us about al-Sharaa’s presidency?Contributors: Dr Rim Turkmani, Research Fellow at Director of Syria Conflict Research Programme (CRP); Makram Rabah, Assistant professor of history at the American University of Beirut; Dr Rahaf Aldoughli, Middle East and North African Studies at Lancaster University; Dr Burcu Ozcelik, Senior Research Fellow for Middle East Security at the Royal United Services Institute. Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Matt Toulson Researcher: Evie Yabsley Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Editor: Tara McDermottImage credit Reuters via BBC Images
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How has one leaked phone call shaken Thai politics?
What lies behind the clashes on the Thai Cambodian border is a fractured friendship between the two nations. In July both countries strike each other with civilians killed and injured in the crossfire. More than a hundred thousand are evacuated. Thailand warns the clashes could escalate to war. In May a brief gunfire exchange killed a Cambodian soldier. Just over two weeks later surprising details from a recorded private phone conversation went public. On that 17-minute call to Cambodia was Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. It was supposed to defuse the situation - instead it has erupted.Away from the border, there’s been public outrage in Thailand, a major prime ministerial setback, fractured friendships, diplomatic ties downgraded and even more political pressure on a far from robust government.Contributors: · Dr Petra Alderman, Centre manager at the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science Dr Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Professor and senior fellow of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University Dr Vu Lam, Lecturer at the University of New South Wales Dr Pavida Pananond, Professor of International Business and Strategy at Thammasat University’s Business School based in Bangkok Presented by Charmaine Cozier Produced by Daniel Rosney Researched by Evie Yabsley Technical producer Criag Boardman Production Management Assistant Liam Morrey Editor Tara McDermottImage credit: Lillian Suwanrumpha via Getty Images
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What will Chile’s latest telescope tell us about the universe?
In Chile, a powerful new telescope has just given a taster of what we can expect from it later this year, when it will be used to survey the cosmos over a ten-year period. In one image it revealed vast colourful gas and dust clouds swirling in a star-forming region 9,000 light years from the Earth. Housed in the Vera C Rubin Observatory, which sits on a mountain in the Chilean Andes, the telescope is designed to get giant images of the sky about one hundred times larger and quicker than any other existing telescope can achieve. It contains the world’s most largest digital camera, the size of a large car. When the Legacy Survey of Space and Time begins towards the end of 2025, the camera will film the entire Southern hemisphere night sky for the next decade, every three days, repeating the process over and over. And it will focus on four areas: mapping changes in the skies or transient objects, the formation of the Milky Way, mapping the Solar System and understanding dark matter or how the universe formed. So, on this week’s Inquiry, we’re asking, ‘What will Chile’s latest telescope tell us about the Universe?’Contributors: Catherine Heymans, Professor of Astrophysics, University of Edinburgh, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, UK Željko Ivezić, Director of Rubin Construction, Professor of Astronomy, University of Washington, USA Dr. Megan Schwamb, Planetary Astronomer, Reader, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland Dr. Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil, Observational Astronomer, Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USAPresenter: Charmaine Cozier Producers: Louise Clarke and Jill Collins Researcher: Maeve Schaffer Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Production Management Assistant: Liam Morrey Image Credit: Anadolu via Getty Images
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