The Foreign Desk

What effect will the passing of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first properly elected president, have on Egypt and the wider Middle East? Andrew Mueller explains.

Everybody is subject to a certain amount of surveillance, whether it’s CCTV cameras in our streets or websites monitoring our online movements to better sell advertising. But what happens when governments use this information to learn things we might not even know about ourselves? China is at the forefront of much technological development, and surveillance is no different — the Communist Party of China is rolling out one of the biggest monitoring systems the world has ever seen. When does supervision become spying? Andrew Mueller is joined by Karoline Kan, Kai Strittmatter and Josh Cowls.

Until last week, Moldova had a crisis caused by a failure to form a government. Now it has a crisis caused by a government being formed. Andrew Mueller explains how events unfolded and looks at what might happen next.

At the start of this decade, thousands of protesters took to the streets across the Arab world seeking to bring down oppressive regimes. But filling the subsequent power vacuums didn't prove easy and many countries have been left with similar problems – corrupt strongman leaders, military dictatorships – or worse ones, including civil war. So why has democracy failed to thrive in the region? And what can be done to break the cycle?

For the first time in the 50-odd years that the role has existed, Australia’s minister for Indigenous Australians is an indigenous Australian. This may seem surprising; or not, given Australia’s less-than-perfect history on this front. Andrew Mueller asks if this is something to celebrate or if the country needs to use this as another opportunity to take a long hard look at its past.

Since the term “fake news” exploded into the common lexicon in 2016 it has been at the forefront of many political agendas. But thanks to resistance to internet regulation, and a lack of basic knowledge among many internet users, hyper-partisan, extreme or completely fabricated news sites have found space to grow, doing untold damage. As countries scramble to try to find a fix, has Finland found the answer? Andrew Mueller is joined by Vesa Häkkinen, Sue Halpern and James Ball.

As the White House prepares to complete the rollback of the most significant federal effort to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, the latest move in Donald Trump’s attack on the environment, Ed Stocker asks why he has become such a champion of environment-sceptic rhetoric.

Just days before the European parliament elections, seen by many as a referendum on populist parties across the continent, a video of Austria’s vice-chancellor – and leader of the far right FPO – was leaked, seemingly showing him offering a Russian contact government contracts in return for political favours. But should this have come as a surprise?

As the results of Australia’s federal election were counted on Saturday night, those expecting a win for the left-wing Labor party had a bit of a shock. Despite years of opinion polls suggesting that opposition leader Bill Shorten only had to turn up, power was retained by conservative prime minister Scott Morrison and his Liberal party. But was it really the surprise that it seemed?

The US and Iran have never really been close. But over the past few weeks tensions have flared, leading to fears of open confrontation between the two. But where did the animosity begin and what are they fighting about this time? Andrew Mueller is joined by Azadeh Moaveni, Holly Dagres and John Limbert.