The Foreign Desk

The treatment of the Uyghur people in China's Xinjiang region has been condemned by journalists but overseas governments have remained silent. Has China become too powerful to criticise or does the international community simply not care? Andrew Mueller is joined by Rushan Abbas, David Schlesinger and John Everard.

Andrew Mueller explains how Aung San Suu Kyi went from Nobel Peace laureate to being questioned about genocide in the International Court of Justice.

Ongoing demonstrations in Iraq, which began in early October, are significant because of protesters’ persistence – despite heavy-handed and sometimes deadly responses from authorities – and the youth of some of those taking to the streets. Andrew Mueller is joined by Pesha Magid, Abbas Kadhim and Renad Mansour to ask whether, this time, things will change.

The murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017 has influenced Malta’s politics for the past two years. Andrew Mueller asks whether we’re getting closer to finding out who is responsible.

Description: In the final episode of our series on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Andrew Mueller is joined by Istvan Rev, Oana Serafim and Cerstin Gammelin to explore the legacy left by the Soviet Union in its former satellite states.

On Monday, 13 French soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash in Mali – the French army’s worst day of active service since 1983. Andrew Mueller asks what France is doing in Mali and the wider region.

In the third episode of our series reflecting on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Andrew Mueller explores the forms of resistance from within the Eastern Bloc. Whether led by peaceful playwrights, powerful trade unions or mutinous soldiers, how did people trapped behind the Iron Curtain fight back against the system? Andrew is joined by Andrei Codrescu, Michael Žantovský and Krzysztof Bobinski.

This week hundreds of Iranian intelligence reports were leaked to a US news website. These reports not only confirm the vast amount of influence Iran has in neighbouring Iraq but also include some intriguing insight into Tehran’s spy network. Andrew Mueller looks at what they tell us – and why they might have been leaked.

​In the second part of our series on the fall of communism 30 years ago, Andrew Mueller is joined by Carmen Bugan, Anna Funder and Tim Mohr to look at what life was like behind the Iron Curtain, including the surveillance by secret police, the personality cult of the leaders and the underground subcultures that rebelled.

As catastrophic wildfires spread across New South Wales in “the most dangerous bushfire week Australia has ever seen”, Andrew Mueller asks why some of those in power are dismissing the views of climate experts.