When voters in Virginia elected a Republican as Governor they sent a wake-up call to President Biden and the Democrats. The handling of the pandemic and rising prices are harming the party’s standing, while a move towards radical liberalism is also alienating some voters. So how likely is defeat at next year’s mid-term elections? Tanya Beckett asks if the Democrats are in big trouble.   Contributors:
Sarah Baxter, former deputy editor, writer Sunday Times
Thomas Edsall, adjunct professor, Columbia University
Larry Sabato, professor of politics, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics 
Robert Schlesinger, president, Schlesinger Communications    Presenter: Tanya Beckett
Producer: Sheila Cook
Researcher: Chris Blake  (Photo: President Biden at the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow)

Are the US Democrats in big trouble?

The Inquiry gets beyond the headlines to explore the trends, forces and ideas shaping the world.

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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

What does a designer handbag say about South Korean politics?

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

Is Georgia turning its back on Europe?

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

What can the world’s biggest iceberg tell us?

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)

Is Myanmar on the brink of collapse?

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

Are the US Democrats in big trouble?

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