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

In September 2022 a Christian pastor had a meeting with Kim Keon Hee, the first lady of South Korea, in her private residence. That meeting was recorded with a hidden camera and the film was released a year later.

What happens in the footage is not entirely clear … except that it appears to show two people - a man and a woman meeting, and one offering an expensive bagged gift to the other. This obscure video triggered a political storm so large that some say it even affected the outcome of the country’s parliamentary elections.

So what does a designer handbag say about South Korean politics?

Contributors: Raphael Rashid, freelance Journalist based in Seoul Sarah Son, Director of the Centre for South Korean Studies at the University of Sheffield Jong Eun Lee, Assistant Professor of Political Science at North Greenville University in South Carolina Andrew Yeo, Senior Fellow and South Korea Foundation Chair at the Brookings Institution

Presented by Tanya Beckett Produced by Louise Clarke Researched by Matt Toulson Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Image Credit: Philip Fong\Getty

On the 28th of May, in a small country on the easternmost reaches of Europe, a new law came into effect.

For the vast majority of people around the world, this new ruling, in a nation of fewer than 4 million inhabitants, went largely unnoticed.

However, for many of the citizens of Georgia it marked a setback, throwing off course the country’s prospects of joining the European Union and aligning it more closely with Moscow.

This week on The Inquiry we’re asking, ‘Is Georgia turning its back on Europe?’

Contributors:

Megi Kartsivadze, DPhil student, Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford, and an invited lecturer at the University of Tbilisi, Georgia

Professor Stephen Jones, Director of the Program on Georgian Studies at the Davis Center at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Dr. Lia Tsuladze, Executive Director of the Center for Social Sciences and an Associate Professor of Sociology at Tbilisi State University, Georgia

Maia Nikoladze, Assistant Director in the GeoEconomics Center, Atlantic Council, Washington DC

Production team:

Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Lorna Reader Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Researcher: Matt Toulson Production Coordinators: Ellie Dover & Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Image Credit: David Mdzinarishvili/Epa-Efe/Rex/Shutterstock

The current record holder for the world’s biggest iceberg is the A23a. Back in 1986 this colossus broke away from an Antarctic ice sheet. This process of breaking off or ‘calving’ as it is known is a natural part of the life cycle of an ice sheet. But A23a then became lodged in the Weddell Sea for more than thirty years, until four years ago a gradual melting allowed the berg to refloat.

Since then it’s been steadily on the move, heading in the same direction as Antarctic icebergs before it, towards the warm waters of the Southern Ocean, where it will eventually shrink from melting.

As it travels, the iceberg has been playing an important role on the ecological environment around it, both in positive and negative ways. So, on this week on The Inquiry, we’re asking ‘What can the world’s biggest iceberg tell us?’

Contributors: Dr. Catherine Walker, Glaciologist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, USA Dr. Oliver Marsh, Glaciologist, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK Jemma Wadham, Professor of Glaciology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway Christopher Shuman, Research Associate Professor, NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, Maryland, USA

Presenter: William Crawley Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Katie Morgan Editor: Tara McDermott Production Co-ordinator: Ellie Dover

Image Credit: A23a in Antarctica, Jan 2024. Rob Suisted/Reuters/via BBC Images

In February 2024, Myanmar reactivated an old law which had been on hold for 14 years, stating adult men aged up to 35, and women up to 27 years old, must serve at least two years in the country’s armed forces. The plan is to add sixty thousand new recruits annually – and anyone caught avoiding conscription faces prison and a fine.

It’s part of the military-led government’s bid to fight back in a brutal civil war, which broke out in 2021 after its coup seized power from the democratically elected party. A violent crackdown on the peaceful public protests that followed triggered widespread armed resistance and has energised other groups who are determined to end military leadership.

Myanmar is no stranger to internal unrest, but this latest conflict is pushing it closer to the edge.

This week we’re asking - Is Myanmar on the brink of collapse?

Contributors: Tin Htar Swe, Former Editor of BBC Burmese Service & freelance Myanmar consultant Professor Michael W. Charney, Professor of Asian and Military History, SOAS, University of London Dr David Brenner, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of Sussex Dr Min Zaw Oo, Executive Director, Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security

Production team: Presenter: Charmaine Cozier Producer: Lorna Reader Researcher: Matt Toulson Editor: Tara McDermott

Image: A protester holds a placard with a three-finger salute in front of a military tank parked aside the street in front of the Central Bank building in Yangon, Myanmar, on 15 February 2021 (Credit: Aung Kyaw Htet/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Historically, Turkey has always had a strong women’s rights movement, stemming from the days of the Ottoman Empire through to the emergence of the Republic of Turkey into the present day. At the top of the movement’s agenda now is the fight to protect women against violence from men. It’s three years since Turkey pulled out of the Istanbul Convention, the Europe wide treaty on combatting violence against women and girls. The Turkish Government has its own version of domestic violence law, but there are concerns that this doesn’t offer the same protection as the Convention.

Campaigners say that femicide and violence against women continues to plague society and that there is an increasingly anti-gender rhetoric within mainstream politics.

So, this week on The Inquiry, we’re asking ‘Is Turkey getting more dangerous for women?’

Contributors: Dr. Sevgi Adak, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, The Aga Khan University. Professor Seda Demiralp, Işık University, Turkey. Dr. Ezel Buse Sönmezocak, International Human Rights Lawyer, Turkey Dr. Hürcan Aslı Aksoy, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Berlin.

Presenter: Emily Wither Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Katie Morgan Production Co-ordinator: Liam Morrey

Image credit: Cagla Gurdogan via REUTERS from BBC Images

The war in Ukraine has reached a pivotal moment.

After months of an apparent stalling on the frontlines, Russia has recently made a series of critical breakthroughs.

Now the race is on for Kyiv to get newly approved military aid to the front line before Russian forces attack Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv.

The 60 billion dollar bill passed in America’s congress at the end of April allows for Ukraine to push back against Russian forces and prepare to mount an offensive next year.

But a gap in the supply of missiles has left Kyiv dangerously exposed and huge questions remain about how Ukraine’s President will act next.

So, on this week’s Inquiry, we’re asking ‘Has US military aid come in time for President Zelensky?’

Contributors:

Gustav Gressel, senior policy fellow with the Wider Europe Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Berlin office. Max Bergmann, Director, Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program and Stuart Center, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in the US. Dr Marina Miron, post-doctoral researcher in the War Studies Department and an honorary researcher at the Centre for Military Ethics and the Department of Defence Studies, Kings College, London. Professor Olga Onuch, Professor (Chair) in Comparative and Ukrainian Politics at the University of Manchester, UK.

Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Lorna Reader Researcher: Matt Toulson Production Co-ordinator: Liam Morrey

Image credit: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via Reuters via BBC Images

Last year the US state of Texas introduced a controversial law designed to control the huge number of undocumented migrants crossing its southern border with Mexico. The law known as Senate Bill 4 or SB4, allows local and state police the power to arrest and charge people with a newly created state crime - ‘illegal entry’.

Immigration law has historically been handled by the federal government. Crossing the border is a federal crime and addressed by immigration courts that fall under the justice department.

Now Texas is embroiled in a legal battle and SB4 has been paused. But it’s just the latest measure that Texas has taken to stop hundreds of thousands of migrants entering the US on its border. Back in 2021 the state’s Governor, Greg Abbott launched a multi-billion dollar border security programme known as Operation Lone Star. Along with his Republican lawmakers, the Governor’s argument is that Texas has a legal right to defend itself and they allege that Democrat President Joe Biden has failed to secure the US southern border in violation of the law. But with a Presidential election this November, it remains to be seen if Texas will have a more sympathetic ally in the White House in the future.

So, on this week’s Inquiry, we’re asking ‘Can Texas go it alone on border control?’

Contributors:

Dr. Ernesto Castañeda, Director of the Centre for Latin American and Latino Studies and its Immigration Lab, American University, Washington DC, USA

Dr James Henson, Director, Texas Politics Project, Department of Government, The University of Texas at Austin, USA.

Denise Gilman, Clinical Professor, Co-Director Immigration Clinic, The University of Texas at Austin, School of Law, USA

Julia Gelatt, Associate Director, US Immigration Policy Programme, Migration Policy Institute, Washington DC, USA

Presenter: Charmaine Cozier Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Matt Toulson Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Production Co-ordinator: Liam Morrey

(Photo credit: Adam Davis via BBC Images

Beyonce has released an album that has gone straight to the top of the country music charts.

The 27 tracks include the work of many collaborators from the world of country music, including Black country artist Linda Martell and Dolly Parton’s 1974 song Jolene.

It has been so well received it has become the fastest selling album of the year.

Beyonce is usually known for her pop and RnB. Her success in the country music genre has opened up a wider debate about where country music originates from, who it belongs to and its political associations.

This week on the Inquiry we are asking, who is country ?

Contributors:

William Nash, Professor of American Studies and English at Middleburgh College Francesca Inglese, assistant professor in the Department of Music at Northeastern University Taylor Crumpton, music critic and culture writer from Dallas, Texas Charles Hughes, associate professor at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee and co-founder of the No Fences Review

Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producers: Louise Clarke and Lorna Reader Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Cameron Ward Production Co-ordinator: Liam Morrey

Image credit: Reuters

An increasing number of people are dying from misuse of synthetic opioids. In 2022, the US recorded over 70,000 overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids. The government is spending billions to combat the effects of these super strength drugs. Synthetic opioids, such as Fentanyl, are made in laboratories by using materials derived from the opium poppy. China is a major hub for the production of synthetic opioids, where it then makes its way to North America through Mexican drug cartels.

The lab-made drugs can be more deadly than the natural materials, but they are more easily accessible, and prevalence is rising across the world.

In West Africa and the Middle East, tramadol is one of the most consumed synthetic drugs. The rise of synthetic opioids in the European market, which are being used as a substitute for a heroin shortage, is fuelling concern that these substances could lead to a rise in drug-related deaths.

This week on The Inquiry, we’re asking are synthetic opioids a global problem?

Contributors Ric Treble, Forensic chemist and advisor to the Government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs Dr Angela Me, Chief of the Research and Trend Analysis Branch from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Ben Westhoff, author of Fentanyl, Inc and investigative journalist Dr Vanda Felbab-Brown is a senior fellow in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings Institution

Production team Presenter: Charmaine Cozier Producers: Vicky Carter and Matt Toulson Researcher: Ajai Singh Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Cameron Ward Production Co-ordinator: Liam Morrey

Image credit: mikroman6 via Getty Images