World Reframed

The departure of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso dented ECOWAS' status. Its efforts to protect democracy ended in failure. Attempts to introduce a single currency have stalled. So the bloc needed a boost to end the year and an agreement to cut a large chunk off flying costs for its 450 million consumers could deliver it.

US forces have been bombing and detaining boats, threatening aircraft and massing in force off the coast of Venezuela. Their declared targets are drug gangs.

World Reframed episode 22 explores how the drugs ecosystem in Colombia and Venezuela functions; why it is deadly, but not so much to Americans; and what the politics around the issue means.

The Russian president's trip to India has received similar coverage in the international media to any meeting he attends - a focus on the war in Ukraine. But there are many takeaways from the event which will have even more profound consequences for the world.

World Reframed 18 discusses the widely dismissed claim that Roman shipbuilding techniques were borrowed from Malay fleets and why the claim has been getting so much attention.

World Reframed 17 looks at the Madlanga Commission and why corruption in South Africa is so hard to root out.

With seven players - China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines - contesting the valuable waters off their coastlines, devious tactics are commonplace. From fake fishermen to fake islands, boat chases and beached ships each side is trying to get the upper hand. Duncan Hooper talks to Logan Zapanta about the fierce competition underway

Protests from Nepal to Madagascar have toppled governments accused of corruption and elitism. Mohammed Elnaiem of the Decolonial Centre says that they are the latest chapter in a long-running battle against a system designed to ensure the world's powerful nations can meet their desire for raw materials.

He talks about the role of technology and multilateral institutions in maintaining this system as well as the potential to defeat it.

Africa has some of the world's leaders and some of the youngest populations. Tensions between the two are on the rise in several countries. Ismail and Duncan discuss Madagascar, Cote D'Ivoire and Cameroon and also explain how you measure the popularity of authoritarian leaders.

Episode 10. Typhoon Ragasa summoned winds of well over 250km/h and brought them to bear on some of the most populated areas of south east Asia. With a shrug, China moved almost 2 million people out of the way. The story of the typhoon and the response to it.

As Donald Trump’s war on drugs gets physical, it is exacerbating existing divisions within the Americas. Duncan and Ismail look into what you can do when the US starts bombing boats off your coast and explore how the Caribbean is moving towards becoming a war zone.