Pestilent peninsula: covid in North Korea

We tackle some of the many questions on the war in Ukraine that listeners sent in this week—why no-fly zones are a perilous idea, how weapons are making their way into Ukraine, why mud is a growing ta...

11 Mar 202228min

Perched at Russia’s north-western corner, the country has plenty of history dealing with neighbourly aggression. We speak with Alexander Stubb, a former prime minister, about his views on European sec...

10 Mar 202222min

After failing to take Ukraine’s second city, Russian forces continue to pummel it with air, artillery and missile strikes. We speak again with an increasingly despondent Kharkiv native. Many schoolyar...

9 Mar 202226min

With the propaganda machine at fever pitch, not everyone in Russia agrees on—much less agrees with—what is going on in Ukraine. Dissent is being met with increasing repression. A wave of jihadism is c...

8 Mar 202224min

The West’s co-ordinated financial weaponry is starting to bite, opening a new age of economic conflict; once-unthinkable oil embargoes seem now to be on the table. Taiwan is another democratic country...

7 Mar 202225min

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered a refugee crisis in Europe. More than a million people have left; millions more could follow. Turkey’s reasonably stable relationship with Russia may not sur...

4 Mar 202224min

A new report shows that climate change is already causing widespread, tangible damage, and argues that adaptation is now as important as mitigation. A once-promising candidate for the French presidenc...

3 Mar 202224min

After backing Russia’s grievances against NATO, China now finds itself treading a very fine line on Ukraine. There are often reasons to be suspicious of a country’s covid-death tally; we examine resea...

2 Mar 202220min