Once upon a time, European powers drew up borders in Africa as part of their colonisation of the continent. These days the EU is increasingly interested in those borders again — including the idea of placing its own agents there to stop migrants heading towards Europe. This week we hear from investigative journalist Andrei Popoviciu about how EU funds are being used to police West African borders, often with a disturbing lack of scrutiny. We're also talking about Italy's #10secondi outrage, France's plan to subsidise clothing repairs, and artistic revenge in the 16th century.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT HERE: https://europeanspodcast.com/episodes/what-is-europe-up-to-on-africas-borders

This is our last episode of the summer but we'll be hard at work until our return in September, preparing episodes for the autumn. If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep making it, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few bucks a month at ⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠ (many currencies are available). You can also help new listeners find the show by ⁠leaving us a review⁠ or giving us five stars on Spotify.

You can read Andrei's investigation here in In These Times, and we'll post a link to the French version in Le Monde as soon as it's out. You can follow Andrei on Twitter here.

The episode we made with Andrei last year about EU border agency Frontex can be found here. The graphics Katy mentioned on how Europeans dispose of unwanted clothes can be found here, and the Guardian's exclusive report about Dürer's sassy revenge on his boss is here.

And if you have a few minutes to spare, we'd be really grateful if you could fill in a quick survey to help us improve the podcast. You can find it here: https://iter.ly/fcmgq

00:22 Go away, Heatwave Charon

03:41 Bad Week: Italy's 10-second assault case

08:11 Good Week: France's discounts for clothes repairs

18:43 Interview: Andrei Popoviciu on the EU's migration policy in Africa

32:37 Isolation Inspiration: Maro's Tiny Desk Concert and Afropop

36:32 Happy Ending: Revenge on bad bosses, 16th century-style

Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak

Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak

Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

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34. El Aleph de Borges