The Foreign Desk

Next week UK voters will decide whether or not their country will remain in the European Union. But the vote has consequences for the rest of Europe too. After Brexit, should we be prepared for Frexit, Nexit or Finexit?

Ahead of this month’s referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, we speak to two politicians on either side of the divide. Douglas Carswell, the sole member of parliament for the anti-EU UK Independence Party, and Vince Cable, former business secretary and Liberal Democrat MP, state their cases to Steve Bloomfield.

We tend to associate great speeches with moments of triumph or the heat of battle. Yet some of the finest and most impassioned political speeches have been made by losers.

June is a good month for football fans. But the Euro 2016 and the Copa America aren’t merely about the game, they’re about identity and nationalism too. These events are some of the only times when nations come together and when we have the opportunity to take a proper look at how they’ve changed.

We are living in an era where we have more information at our fingertips than ever before. And yet the quantity of information is not matched by the quality. Outright lies, genuine misunderstandings, quotes out of context – how do you separate the wheat from the chaff?

Everyone is queuing in Venezuela, inflation is soaring and the healthcare system is at breaking point. But president Nicholas Maduro doesn’t think it’s his fault. So where does Venezuela go from here?

Now more than ever, we need nations to tell a story that includes all their citizens: the rural and the urban, the liberal and the conservative.

Brazil’s political crisis is far from over: the economy is still struggling and corruption investigations are ongoing. So is the all-male, all-white government of Michel Temer up to the task? We ask what all this means for Brazilian democracy.

Barely a week goes by without new allegations of doping in sport. With cover-ups, blackmail, state-sponsored programmes and old results being annulled after fresh tests, is there any hope that this summer’s Olympics will be clean?

Is a major European nation about to elect a far-right president? Austria’s Freedom party topped the polls in the first round of elections; what chance do they have of winning outright in next week’s second round? And what does this tell us about modern-day Austria?


Join us at Midori House in London on Thursday 11 May for a special live recording of The Foreign Desk. For details and to book tickets visit https://monocle.com/events/the-foreign-desk-live/.