The Foreign Desk

Semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan has had its sights set on independence but, in a time of ever-increasing instability in the region, why now?

Australia's non-compulsory postal plebiscite on equal marriage is well underway – but is it necessary, why has it taken so long and why is Australia making this so complicated? We speak to Tim Wilson MP, Josh Taylor, Christine Forster and veteran rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.

Tomos Lewis takes a look at Fema, the agency tasked with cleaning up the areas devastated by the recent hurricanes. With the Trump administration's assault on big-government spending underway, what might its future be?

As the violence against the Rohingya continues to intensify in western Myanmar and Aung San Suu Kyi remains defiantly silent, what is really happening inside the country and when is it time for the international community to step in?

As New Zealanders prepare to head to the polls on 23 September, James Chambers profiles the contenders and asks whether they’re worth getting excited about?

In countries ravaged by war, once the killing stops, the white flags are raised and gun-barrels are lowered, what hope is there that former enemies can once again co-exist as citizens of a single nation? We ask veteran BBC correspondent Martin Bell, Remembering Srebreneca’s Amra Mujkanovic, former special envoy to the Colombian peace process Dag Nylander and Rwandan-genocide survivor Jean Kayigamba.

Sport can be a great way for a country to show its power over others. But that doesn’t always go as planned. Now, even hosting a major international event can cause considerable damage to a country’s reputation. So, Andrew Mueller asks, why bother?

During our summer series we’ve looked at art, architecture and personality cults of autocracies. But what happens when dictatorships end? In our final episode we turn to democracies and ask how countries deal with the symbols of their troubling past. From the confederate statues in the US to former Soviet monuments, how do we remember without glorifying ‘our’ history?

In Japan tourism is on the up. The government initiatives to attract more foreign visitors have worked but residents are feeling the strain.