The Foreign Desk

The pandemic is a populist’s nightmare: a virus makes no ideological distinctions and requires expertise and patience to defeat. In Brazil, at least 50,000 people have died while a populist president blusters – a situation echoed in the US, the UK and elsewhere. Has populism been unmasked? Andrew Mueller is joined by Fernando Augusto Pacheco, Tessa Szyszkowitz and Tom Nichols.

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In an intriguing sub-plot of Yemen’s ghastly civil war, one of the factions allegedly supporting the government has taken control of an island near the Gulf of Aden. Andrew Mueller looks at who has seized Socotra and why.

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The conviction of prominent journalist Maria Ressa is yet another worrying sign of the Philippines’ direction under Rodrigo Duterte. Andrew Mueller talks to Sheila Coronel and Richard Heydarian about Duterte’s assault on democratic norms and to Carlo Bonura about the populist president’s so-called independent foreign policy.

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The conviction of prominent journalist Maria Ressa is yet another worrying sign of the Philippines’ direction under Rodrigo Duterte. Andrew Mueller talks to Sheila Coronel and Richard Heydarian about Duterte’s assault on democratic norms and to Carlo Bonura about the populist president’s so-called independent foreign policy.

As Somalia conducts talks with the unrecognised government of breakaway region Somaliland, Andrew Mueller asks if Somaliland’s time might be coming.

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​We talk to leading economist – and advisor to three UN secretary-generals – Jeffrey Sachs about his new book, ‘The Ages Of Globalisation: Geography, Technology and Institutions’, which tracks globalisation through history to the present time. Is this the peak from which globalisation descends? Is this an opportunity to make it better?

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As North Korea halts all cross-border communication with the South in a row over propaganda balloons, Andrew Mueller wonders why Pyongyang has chosen this moment to get so angry.

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The killing of George Floyd has resulted in protests across the US and the world. Andrew Mueller is joined by Charles H Ramsey – former Washington police chief and co-chair of the Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which was set up by Barack Obama – to consider how the police can be reformed. Plus: Amy Pope looks at Joe Biden’s chances of healing a nation if he is elected in November, and Errin Haines explains why for black people this is a pandemic within a pandemic – and why this time, it may be a tipping point.

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Why did Russia get punted out of the G7 and why does Trump want it back in? Andrew Mueller explains.

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Has the pandemic accelerated China’s plans? Andrew Mueller talks to James Chambers about the escalating situation in Hong Kong, to Beijing journalist Sophia Yan about China’s plans elsewhere and to former diplomat John Everard about how other countries can usefully – and tactfully – try to change China’s behaviour.

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