All Episodes
The Foreign Desk — 136 episodes
Iran: Is the US out of options?
Explainer 532: Why is Syria back on Washington’s Christmas card list?
After America: Europe’s new security order
Explainer 531: Could Moldova reunite with Romania?
The Democrats’ warring factions: Each have won battles but who will win the war?
Explainer 530: Who even is Russia’s anti-war party?
The Ceuta border crisis: Who’s really threatening Schengen?
Explainer 529: What’s driving Morocco’s Trump highway?
CTRL + ALT + RIGHT: Has technofascism taken over Silicon Valley?
Explainer 528: Does India’s Cockroach party have legs?
How can we ensure that the politics of heatwaves doesn’t cool off?
Explainer 527: Andy Burnham and the revolving door of UK politics
When politics kicks off at the World Cup: what separates the screamers from the own goals?
Explainer 526: Why Japan has been spooked into launching an intelligence service
Powering Purpose in London
The scramble for critical minerals
Explainer 525: You can’t keep a Le Pen down
Does the US still have a free press?
Explainer 524: Why is Marco Rubio trying to unify Libya?
Live from Almedalen 2026: The state of Swedish politics
Explainer 523: Flight of the White Eagle
‘El juego bonito’: Can the beautiful game help Mexico win off the pitch?
Explainer 522: The World Cup seat France won’t fill
Live from Odesa: Ukraine’s journey from needing help to providing it
Explainer 521: Trump Island
Lessons from Odesa: the changing landscape of war
Explainer 520: Is it the end of the road for Ferrari’s new electric vehicle?
Upping the ante: How prediction markets are shaking geopolitics
Explainer 519: Why Morocco and Senegal’s football rivalry is the one to watch this World Cup
The Cuban man-made crisis: will the US’s maximum-pressure campaign topple Havana’s government?
Explainer 518: Duterte vs Marcos in the latest episode of Filipino Family Feud
The rise of the middle powers
Explainer 517: How the revival of gerrymandering is hurting democracy
Live from Delphi: Can Europe remake itself into a superpower?
Explainer 516: Are Albertans about to leave Canada?
Live from Delphi: Can the US and Europe find a way back?
Explainer 515: Has King Charles saved the special relationship?
Live from Delphi: Europe breaks with the US over the war in Iran
Explainer 514: Why is Teddy Afro’s music roiling Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed?
From Maga to Orbán: The cracks emerging in the global right
Explainer 513: Why does Viktor Orbán’s defeat matter?
Operation Epic Fury: Is that it?
Explainer 512: Why is JD Vance in Hungary?
As the war in Iran enters its second month, is victory for anyone still possible?
Explainer 511: Why is Germany telling Syrians to return home?
Why has Israel invaded Lebanon?
Explainer 510: From Angola with love: are there Russian spies in southern Africa?
The war in Iran: the global fallout
Explainer 509: Is Cuba next on Trump’s hit list?
Iran: Are the US and Israel fighting the same war?
Explainer 508: How did rapper Balen become prime minister of Nepal?
The Foreign Desk Exclusive: Canada prime minister Mark Carney on the new world order
Live special: War in Iran
Explainer 507: Pakistan-Afghanistan: What’s fuelling this week’s overlooked conflict?
Munich Security Conference special: Is Europe awake yet?
Explainer 506: How did Mexico’s drug cartels bring the country to a standstill?
Munich Security Conference special: Will the transatlantic alliance survive?
Powering Purpose in Munich
Explainer 505: Are the Winter Olympics apolitical?
Is it worth prosecuting the powerful?
Explainer 504: The jailing of Jimmy Lai: China’s stand against Hong Kong media and the UK’s middling response
Could this be the end of Iran’s regime?
Explainer 503: Why is the US making nice with West African juntas?
The capture of Nicolás Maduro: a new horizon for Venezuela and American foreign policy?
Explainer 502: The two-man rivalry fuelling South Sudan’s civil war
Live from Nuuk: Trump’s threats grip Greenland
Explainer 501: Why does Trump really want Greenland?
Trump: One down, three to go... (in theory)
Explainer 500: Why are Malaysia and Indonesia alone in taking on Grok?
What can the world expect in 2026?
Explainer 499: Why is Donald Trump ‘running’ Venezuela?
The best of the Explainer 2025
The best of 2025
2025 in review
Explainer 498: Belarus’s balloon offensive
Could Taiwan draw the US, China and Japan into war?
Explainer 497: The art of (stopping) the coup
One year on from the toppling of the Assad regime, how far has Syria’s revolution come?
Explainer 496: Is Hegseth in deep water?
Powering Purpose in Brussels
What do Russians really think of Putin?
Explainer 495: What’s the deal with the Ukraine peace deal?
Stranger than fiction?
Explainer 494: The bright side of Ukraine’s corruption scandal
How the Arctic is hotting up
Explainer 493: Trump vs the BBC
Are the world’s Gen Z protests different?
Explainer 492: Why is Nigeria the US military’s latest target?
Is Milei’s chainsaw cutting through?
Explainer 491: Trump’s third term?
Eighty years on, is the United Nations a relevant institution?
Explainer 490: Who is Japan’s new prime minister, other than a woman?
Donald Trump, the diplomat
Explainer 489: Why have Gen Z protests spread to Madagascar?
Two years on from 7 October: did it have to be like this?
Explainer 488: Why has Australia signed a defence treaty with Papua New Guinea?
Why is Moldova’s election result so significant to its neighbours?
Explainer 487: India, Pakistan and a dearth of cricket diplomacy
Is social media a threat to national security?
Explainer 486: Why recognise Palestine now?
Above the law?
Explainer 485: The aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s murder
White House vs City Hall
Explainer 484: Nepal’s war on social media
Does the immigration debate have to be like this?
Explainer 483: Labour’s England flag frenzy
Shadow boxing in the Caribbean: Why is the US cornering Venezuela?
Explainer 481: Why has Australia thrown out Iran’s ambassador?
Who will run the world if the US doesn’t want to anymore?
Explainer 480: Myanmar and the perks of posing as a democracy
Is a liberal Israel recoverable and might that be the key to peace?
Explainer 479: Who are the Balochistan Liberation Army and why have they suddenly attracted US attention?
Is popularity in politics a thing of the past?
Explainer 478: Why does Trump care about Bolsonaro?
The catastrophe in Gaza and the prospects of a Palestinian state
Explainer 478: Why is Islamic State targeting the DRC?
Cameroon’s forgotten crisis: Is reconciliation in the Anglo-Franco schism possible?
Explainer 477: What is behind the violence in Syria?
Explainer 476: Lesotho’s one-man fight for South African land
The future of warfare
Dynastic democracies
Explainer 475: Why has Russia recognised the Taliban?
How to topple a tyrant
Explainer 474: Tuvalu’s climate-change escape to Australia
Has the ‘12-Day War’ settled anything?
Explainer 473: Cambodia, Thailand and phone-call warfare
The view of Europe from Globsec Forum 2025
Explainer 472: The furious funeral row over Zambia’s former president
‘The Foreign Desk’ in Odesa: the international ripple effects of war in Ukraine
Explainer 471: Who gets to be an Italian citizen?
Odesa, the Black Sea, the front line and Ukraine’s future
Explainer 470: The on-again, off-again US-Iran nuclear talks
Are journalists safe?
Explainer 469: Who are India’s Maoists?
Why does Russia still have influence in eastern Europe?
Explainer 468: Tantrum or tactic? Why has Australia’s National Party split from the Liberals?