Nothing is Foreign

On Sunday, supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country's Congress. This happened just a week after the inauguration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Thousands of demonstrators crossed security barricades, smashed windows and ransacked offices. For many who follow Brazilian politics closely, this act of violence wasn't surprising. Bolsonaro supporters have bee...

The Indonesian parliament recently approved a law that, in part, bans sex outside of marriage, making the act punishable by a year in jail. Rights groups fear this will lead to a crackdown on dissent and privacy rights, and that it will also targets the LGBTQ community given that gay marriage is illegal in Indonesia. Today on Nothing is Foreign, we dig into what this could mean for people in Indon...

India’s RRR, a three-hour epic that’s made 175 million dollars around the world and found a massive audience through Netflix, has just been nominated for two Golden Globes — a first for an Indian film. And with that, RRR has brought a lot of attention to Tollywood, the South Indian Telugu-language film industry from which it was made. This comes during a rough patch for Bollywood, the country’s do...

In many ways South Korean boy band BTS is exceptional. The group sells out stadiums around the world, and adds about $3.6 billion USD a year to their home economy. But in one crucial aspect, each of its seven members is completely ordinary. Like every young man in South Korea: they must enlist for mandatory military service before they turn 30. Last week, the oldest member of the group, Kim Seok-j...

World Cup 2022 is about to wrap up this weekend, and one of the emerging storylines has been the growing solidarity between fans from different Arab nations. The success of Morocco, the first African and largely Arabic-speaking country to enter the semi-finals, is a big contributing factor to this, but many fans have also been united in their support of the Palestinian cause during the tournament....

The Japanese government has launched an inquiry into the power and influence of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, also known as the Unification Church, or the Moonies. Critics have called this group a cult. This comes after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July. The murder suspect says that he targetted the politician for his connection to the Unificati...

Protests erupted in cities all over China last weekend over the country's strict COVID-19 measures. People called for an end to stringent lockdowns, and in some cases, for greater democratic reforms. Civil disobedience this widespread hasn't been seen in China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. This week on Nothing is Foreign, we dig into what life under zero-COVID policies looks like to be...

For decades, Colombia has been plagued by violent conflict involving armed groups and drug cartels. Despite many attempts to curb the problem, including a landmark peace deal with the country's largest rebel group in 2016, cocaine production continues to proliferate in Colombia. Now, President Gustavo Petro is implementing a new "total peace" plan to deal with the drug problem. He says that the wa...

More than a million soccer fans are expected to descend on Qatar this weekend, as the 2022 World Cup begins. But in the decade since the country won its bid, there's been allegations of corruption and widespread criticism of the way that the government has handled preparations for the tournament. Human rights groups point to how stadium workers, mostly from foreign countries like Bangladesh and Ne...

At COP27, the UN's conference on climate change this week, countries in the Global South are calling for a loss and damage compensation fund. And for the first time, it's actually on the agenda. The central argument for the fund is that the countries most vulnerable to climate change are the least responsible for the emissions contributing to the climate crisis. Advocates for the fund say that the...

This week, we take you inside one environmental activist group's preparations for a protest to better understand the debate around the more brazen activist tactics in the climate movement. The UN climate conference COP27 will take place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt starting Sunday. Activists in Europe have been using a variety of more disruptive and brazen tactics to call attention to the climate cri...

Almost eight million people in the United Kingdom are struggling to pay their bills right now, according to recent financial surveys. From heat to food, the cost of living has risen astronomically. Some people are even opting out of utilities to save money. This is the backdrop to the political turmoil that's been dominating the headlines in recent weeks, with Liz Truss' resigning from the prime m...

This week, Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to receive an unprecedented third term, which would make him the longest serving leader since Mao Zedong. It comes as more than two thousand members of the Chinese Communist Party are gathering in Beijing to determine the government’s priorities for the next five years. This week on Nothing is Foreign, we look at Xi’s path to consolidating power in th...

Brazil's Amazon rainforest is in peril. During incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro’s time in office, researchers have seen an increase in deforestation, land invasions and violence against Indigenous peoples in the area. Ahead of the runoff vote in the country’s presidential election, we speak with an Indigenous leader who says his tribe’s very existence is at stake with this election. Guests: Andr...

For the first time since Mussolini's rule during the Second World War, a far-right party has been elected to power in Italy. We take you to Mussolini's birthplace, Predappio — which, to this day, is home to souvenir shops and shrines honouring the dictator — to explore the lasting impact of fascism in the country's politics. Featuring: Carlo Magistretti, Italian freelance journalist. Piero Ignazi,...

Over the past few weeks, protests in Iran against the compulsory hijab law and the morality police have spread across the country and worldwide, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. But it's not the first time protests against the Islamic Republic's repression of women's rights have erupted. We look at what's different this time and how the current uprising is uniting Iranians fr...

The high seas are beyond the reach of international law – and beyond the beat of most reporters. But Pulitzer-Prize-winner and former New York Times journalist, Ian Urbina, has sailed into uncharted territories. Urbina sets out on a years-long quest to investigate murder at sea, modern slave labour, environmental crimes and quixotic adventurers. Part travelog, part true-crime thriller, this 7-part...

A recent string of bank hold-ups in Lebanon have gone viral on social media. Desperate depositors storm into banks, sometimes with guns, and demand tellers hand over their own money. There have been limits on withdrawals since 2019 and frustration is mounting as the economic crisis there deepens. Sally Hafez, a woman who held up a bank with a toy gun in order to withdraw money for her sister's can...

The rains in Pakistan started early this year and at one point, a third of the country's territory was inundated with water. Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced and a food crisis is looming. But how did things get this bad and who is ultimately responsible when a country with low emissions faces the brunt of a global climate crisis? Plus, we take a quick look at how Queen Elizabeth's dea...

Access to abortion has taken on urgency as the laws protecting it come under attack in the U.S. Working with American journalist Amanda Robb, host David Ridgen examines the murder of her uncle, an abortion provider in the U.S. and the resulting conviction of a fanatical sniper. Both discover that this murder may be the endgame of a series of doctor shootings that actually began in Canada. More epi...

It’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks for Taiwan. After U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's controversial visit to the self-governed island last week, China followed up with several military drills over the Taiwan strait. While those drills have now stopped, tensions remain high between the U.S. and China, which claims the island as its own territory, and the people of Taiwan find themselves caught...

Mexico City has become a hot remote working destination since the start of the pandemic. But the influx of wealthy foreigners is having an impact on everything from housing affordability to pandemic safety and it's sparking a major conversation in the city about gentrification. Featuring: Zachary Berkman, English teacher living in Mexico City. Tamara Velasquez, PhD student in Global Urban Studies...

When human rights activist Karima Baloch is found drowned off the shores of Toronto, an investigation into her mysterious death leads all the way back to Pakistan, the country she had recently fled. In this six-part series, host Mary Lynk explores the rampant abductions and killings of dissidents in Pakistan, the dangers that follow those who flee to the West, and a terrifying intelligence agency...

Europe's latest record-breaking heat wave is sparking some real climate anxiety. Wildfires have spread rapidly across the continent, while soaring temperatures have warped roads and caused train tracks to buckle. More than 1,000 people have died due to the heat in Spain and Portugal alone. With extreme weather events on the rise, some wonder if what is happening in Europe will finally jolt leaders...

Sri Lanka’s president just resigned after months of protest and a deepening economic crisis. Despite Rajapaksa’s departure and the celebratory scenes of demonstrators partying at the president’s home, the people of Sri Lanka have a massive debt hole to climb out of and people have been struggling. What comes next? Plus, a look at why a maintenance shutdown of Russia’s Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to...