Talian Kasih is a helpline run by the Ministry for Women, Family and Community Development, handling hundreds of calls dealing with concerns ranging from domestic violence to suicidal ideation. However, there have been calls for children to have a dedicated 24-hour child helpline to tackle children’s concerns. We speak to Datin PH Wong, executive director of Childline Foundation for her thoughts on the importance of a dedicated child helpline and how it could be implemented.

Other stories we covered:

· Improved safety measures for heavy vehicles: Announced by Transport Minister, Anthony Loke, these new safety measures are meant to address the fatal accidents involving heavy vehicles that happened last year. We delve into what these measures look like with Dr Mohd Azman bin Abas, director of the Automotive Development Centre at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

· Rohingya refugees turned away at Malaysian shores: Malaysian authorities are cracking down on undocumented migrants looking for a safe haven. Sumitha Shaanthinni Kishna, director of the migrants rights NGO Our Journey speaks to us about this.

· Elon Musk strains EU-US relations: Accused of interfering with elections and backing "new international reactionary movements”, Musk has been making his presence known in Europe as the Trump administration's incoming head of the “Department of Government Efficiency”. We speak to Yanitha Meena Louis, analyst at ISIS Malaysia to contextualize Musk’s actions and the importance of maintaining EU-US relations.

· Are phone breaks good for students?: According to Southern Illinois University’s study, students had better focus and test scores when they were given one-minute phone breaks. To understand why this works, we reached out to Dr Hiran Perera, a Cognitive Neuroscientist from Taylor’s University for his thoughts.

Image Credit: shutterstock.com

Produced by: Lim Sue Ann, Sneha Harikannan, Tee Shiao Eek, Christine Yong

Presented by: Lee Chwi Lynn, Sharaad Kuttan

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Categories:  politics,  government,  international,  Law/Activism,  controversies,  environment,  education,  corruption

Tags:  child helpline,  heavy vehicle safety measures,  fatal accidents,  automotive development,  Malaysia immigration policy,  EU-US relations,  far-right politics,  government efficiency,  student phone breaks,  talian kasih,  domestic violence,  suicidal ideation,  child welfare,  Transport Minister Anthony Loke,  rohingya refugees,  undocumented migrants,  elon musk,