In May, the Chief Justice of India unwittingly gave a name to a generational protest. He called unemployed young people “cockroaches” and the mass youth movement that had begun in the wake of the sudden cancellation of a national exam took on the title - the Cockroach Janta party.

But India hasn’t been the only country that has seen Gen Z - people aged between 14 and 29 - engaging in mass protests this year. It’s been happening all over the place, from Serbia to Kenya. Different grievances, different circumstances, but the same generation.

So what are the youth revolting about, and are they winning?

Step inside The Briefing Room and together we’ll find out.

Guests:

Dr Nayana Prakash, research affiliate at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge.

Production team:

Presenter: David Aaronovitch

Did you step outside this morning and feel something odd on your face or neck? Its called rain. We’ve hardly had any this summer and the result was the declaration this month of drought status across two thirds of England and almost all of Wales. The reservoirs are low. And the future looks parched: the government estimates that by 2055, England will face a water shortfall of 5 billion litres a day. To put that in context we currently use 14 billion litres.

Why has this happened and how can we fix it? Other than everyone moving to Scotland.

Step inside The Briefing Room and together we’ll find out.

Guests:

Sir John Armitt, chair of The Public Private Partnership Commission

Production team:

Presenter: David Aaronovitch

Until recently Baroness Louise Casey was going to deliver her huge review of English social care by 2028. Then the PM changed and so did the date. Now the whole shebang is timed for next summer. Last week we looked at what we mean by social care, who gets it, who provides it and who pays for it. And why our current system is deficient.

This week we find out what the alternatives are, how much they’d cost and who’d pay.

Guests:

Thea Stein, Chief Executive of the Nuffield Trust

Production team:

Presenter: David Aaronovitch

It’s social care time again. That moment every five years when politicians and civil servants are on the cusp of coming up with a new system to replace the perceived arbitrary and unfair way in which we in the UK pay for the care that many adults need to be able to live a decent life.

Right now Baroness Casey, appointed by Keir Starmer to conduct a urgent review into social care in England with the objective of recommending a new plan, has been asked by Andy Burnham to make it even more urgent and recommend it more quickly.

In this first of two episodes looking at what the review is likely to find and its impact on all of us, we’ll look at what we mean by social care, its history and who gets it.

Guests:

Thea Stein, Chief Executive of the Nuffield Trust

Production team:

Presenter: David Aaronovitch

According to polls immigration remains near the top - or at the top - of public concerns. And now a new prime minister inherits that popular anxiety. Last week The Briefing Room examined arguably the most visible aspect of the migration question: the small boats, asylum seeking and illegal migration.

This week we look at legal migration, the issue of reliance on overseas workers, changes to indefinite leave to remain and public opinion about migration.

Guests:

Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford and author of What is Immigration Policy for?

Production team:

Presenter: David Aaronovitch

New PM, old problems. When Labour took office they vowed to tackle the people smuggling gangs behind the small boats crossings, to reduce net inward migration and to act to replace cheap imported labour with better paid indigenous workers. Meanwhile Andy Burnham faces polls showing immigration still sitting near the top - if not the top - of public concerns.

But what are the facts here? What does the record show after two years of this government?

This issues here are so big and complicated that we’re devoting two programmes to them. In this - the first one - we’re going to focus purely on small boats, asylum seekers and illegal immigration.

Guests:

Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford and author of What is Immigration Policy for?

Production team:

Presenter: David Aaronovitch

Picture credit: Ben Stansall Via Getty

Power to the people! Or, at any rate power to the mayors! As government prepares for yet another new prime minister it is keenly aware that this one has moving power away from the centre to the English regions as his big idea. His central idea. The argument is that such devolution will lead to more and better economic growth. But how does that actually work? Would you get more growth that way?

Guests:

Jennifer Williams, Northern correspondent at the Financial Times

Production team

Presenter: David Aaronovitch

For previous generations, coupling was something only trains did. Then it became a word to describe the business of finding a partner. An important business for the future of the species. But today in the developed world - and even beyond - the data shows that coupling is significantly down. Increasingly, people are just not forming those relationships. There are all kinds of theories out there now about why this is happening, ranging from the intriguing to the improbable. So what do we know about this noncoupling and its implications?

Guests:

Dr Alice Evans, visiting Associate Professor at Stanford and author of the upcoming book The Great Gender Divergence

Presenter: David Aaronovitch

Image credit: Malte Mueller, Getty Images

Two weeks ago a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Americans and the Iranians aiming at ending a bomb, missile-and-drone conflict that has lasted four months. Victory has been claimed by everyone and on behalf of everyone. So is the US/Israeli/Iranian war effectively over bar the seemingly inevitable bombast? If so did anyone win? On what terms? And where does it leave the rest of us?

Guests:

Shashank Joshi, The Economist’s Washington bureau chief

Presenter: David Aaronovitch

The war between Russia and Ukraine has shifted closer to Moscow. In the past week Ukraine has sent drones, made by Ukraine, to Moscow. While many were intercepted, 3 people died when an apartment block was hit. For many Russians the war - or special military operation as President Putin calls it - has been far away. But not any longer. At the same time though, Russia continues to hit cities across Ukraine and civilians continue to die. David Aaronovitch and his guests discuss whether Putin is under greater pressure now and whether the trajectory of this conflict has changed with the use of drone-warfare?

Guests:

Presenter: David Aaronovitch