Nothing is Foreign

Chile is on the cusp of replacing its Pinochet-era constitution with a radically progressive new alternative. Three years after mass protests swept the nation, an elected group of citizens have rewritten their constitution. It could replace the one enacted when a military dictatorship gripped the country from 1973 to 1990. The new document, which voters will have to decide on in September, brings...

Afrobeats is dominating summer playlists. After a steady rise for the genre over the last few years, artists like Wizkid, Burna Boy and Tems are all over the Western music charts, winning big at the Grammys and BET Awards and headlining the biggest festivals. But, for the growing African diaspora that's been fueling its rise, the music goes a lot deeper than its commercial success. We get into how...

The devastation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine is being felt far beyond the front lines of the war. More than 20 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain exports are being blocked by Russia in the Black Sea — a vital trade route that supplies millions of people in North Africa and the Middle East; many nations in those regions now face extreme food shortages and potential famine. We explain how Ukraine'...

Ideas with Nahlah Ayed is a deep-dive into contemporary thought and intellectual history. No topic is off-limits. Can you ever truly go home again? At a time when more people have been forcibly displaced from their homes than at any other time in history, IDEAS explores what it means to return years — or decades — later. This is the first episode in the new five-part series, The Idea of Home. More...

On June 21, a new labour law comes into effect in the U.S. requiring all importing businesses to prove that nothing in their supply chain is made with forced labour in the Chinese province of Xinjiang. That's where human rights organizations say more than a million Uyghurs have been detained, with estimates of hundreds of thousands forced to produce cotton, apparel and electronics for some of the...

More than two years into the pandemic and North Korea finally admits it has a COVID problem — and it could be getting dire. Since May, the secretive North Korean government says more than three million people have come down with a "fever" while hundreds of thousands are confirmed COVID cases. With no vaccines and only some able to access medical care, the outbreak could already be out of control....

Colombia's presidential election is heading to a pivotal runoff between two political outsiders: a former guerilla fighter turned senator who could become the country's first left-wing president, and a 77-year-old right-wing populist TikTok star. It's a critical time for the country, six years after a historic peace deal that was supposed to end 50 years of civil war. But instead of promised peace...

Ukraine's Donbas region has traditionally been a stronghold of pro-Russian support, but after months of war in its backyard, that once-unassailable loyalty to Russia in the east could be starting to dissipate. This week, we head back to the front lines of the Ukraine-Russia war and explore why some Ukrainians who once dreamed of a Russian-backed future are changing their minds. Featuring: Enrique...

An Israeli court decision could allow the government to evict around 1,200 Palestinians from the Masafer Yatta area in the southern West Bank. The May 4 High Court of Justice ruling rejected the prior appeals against eviction orders issued to residents of the area, which Israel declared a military firing zone in the 1980s. Palestinians say they have a right to remain on the land and have lived the...

In the Philippines, Bonifacio Ilagan survived prison, political violence and the disappearance of his sister — all at the hands of the Ferdinand Marcos Sr. dictatorship. Despite decades of activism, he never expected to see the family he fought to overthrow return to power in his country. But that's what happened this week when Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. won a landslide presidential victory....

The U.K.'s plan to send refugees on a one-way trip to Rwanda is causing outrage. In a controversial, multimillion-pound deal, the British government will send some asylum seekers to Rwanda instead of allowing them to stay in the U.K. This plan marks a major shift in how refugees are treated and could have a far-reaching implications for the rest of Europe — and for thousands of refugees fleeing wa...

Starting in the mid-2000s, a pulsing fusion of EDM, rap and Egyptian folk – known as Mahraganat – has risen from the streets of Cairo and become a worldwide phenomenon. But Egypt's authorities are now cracking down on the music and the artists creating it, saying it's immoral and corrupting young people. We take you inside the culture and class wars of Egypt and explore what the banning of popular...

France is electing a new president this weekend — and once again the culture war over Islam is front and centre. Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate, has proposed a ban on Muslim women wearing headscarves in public, and she's in striking distance of upsetting Emmanuel Macron, France's current centrist president. With the debate over French identity and rampant Islamaphobia flaring up again, our...

Economically, Sri Lanka is on fire. Residents are dealing with ballooning food costs, hours-long lineups for fuel and power blackouts that last half the day. The country is facing record inflation and unemployment, the likes of which haven't been seen in 74 years. But the crisis has united a nation that's long been divided along ethnic and religious lines — all to oust the political family they bl...

If you're sitting in the West, listening to Western politicians, the Ukraine-Russia war has a pretty clear narrative: Russia is the aggressor and should be sanctioned to the fullest extent, in solidarity with Ukraine. But how does the rest of the world view this war? Much of the Global South and some of the most powerful nations in the world, like China, India and Brazil, don't see the war in blac...

The demands are growing in Jamaica to get Britain to pay up and offer reparations for slavery. Anti-monarchy sentiments, protests and calls for reparations made for an uncomfortable visit for Prince William and Kate through the Caribbean last week. Jamaica's prime minister said the Commonwealth realm is looking to "move on" from the monarchy and become an independent republic. One of its most urge...

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has delivered unprecedented success for his team, London's Chelsea Football Club, in the English Premier League. But with sanctions tightening around Abramovich, who is on the list of those deemed to be enabling Russian President Vladimir Putin in his war against Ukraine, the team's finances and ethics are under the microscope. And that scrutiny levelled at Abr...

South’s Korea incoming president, Yoon Suk Yeol, demonizes feminism, blames women for the country’s low birth rate and denies the existence of gender inequality. His campaign — which capitalized on the politics of grievance — has drawn comparisons to former U.S. president Donald Trump. So much so that he is also known as K-Trump. This week, we hear from the women who are fighting for their voices,...

Peering inside Russia — and it’s complex web of state propaganda — presents a very different view of the war in Ukraine and who the real victims are. As nations around the world condemn Russia’s invasion, many within Russia are supporting Russian president Vladimir Putin. How is Putin selling the war to the Russian people? Will thousands of anti-war protesters challenging the Kremlin make a differ...

More than a million people have fled Ukraine into countries to the west, as Russian attacks continue. The refugee crisis has spurred an outpouring of international support, as neighbouring European countries open their borders and homes. But the support this time is strikingly different from how some countries have responded to refugees from other conflicts — like Syria and Iraq — who were kept ou...

Fears of warfare have become reality this week in Ukraine. A Russian attack is underway – with explosions and shelling filling the skies above Kyiv and troops seizing Ukrainian territory. We speak with Maksym Kyiak, a pro-democracy activist living in Kyiv, who talks about the mad dash to grab money and supplies as Russian troops move into the capital city, and Sara Cincurova, a journalist covering...

Since the fall of Kabul six months ago, conditions in Afghanistan have been devastating: 98 percent of the country is short on food, bank accounts are frozen, thousands have left, and the economy is on the verge of total collapse. The United Nations has gone so far as to call it the worst humanitarian crisis in recent history. Now the U.S. — on top of continuing sanctions against Afghanistan and f...

Can a nation — and economy — of 6.5 million people run on bitcoin? That's the real-time experiment playing out in El Salvador, where the country's tech bro president has made the cryptocurrency legal tender. We'll take you inside El Salvador and hear from locals to see how the promise of a cryptocurrency paradise by a self-professed 'world's coolest dictator' is running up against the reality of r...

Nothing is Foreign is a weekly world news podcast, hosted by Tamara Khandaker. Launching February 11.