When the European parliament elected a new president last week, many of the headlines focused on one thing: the fact that she's against abortion. But Roberta Metsola's public stance is not at all unusual in a country with one of the strictest abortion bans in the world. This week we're asking: where does this incredibly strong taboo come from? Researcher and activist Liza Caruana-Finkel is here to fill us in. We're also talking about Chinese influence at European universities, and the case of a toilet that went all the way to Italy's Supreme Court.

'Why it is vital to decriminalise abortion: the case of Malta' - The Conversation

China's Magic Weapon - BBC

Excellent tweets about embarrassing mistakes in a second (or third or fourth) language

This week's Isolation Inspiration: The Investigation (Efterforskningen); Atlas Linguae

This episode was produced as part of Sphera, a collective of independent European media. Find out more at sphera-hub.com.

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Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak

Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

This podcast is part of the Are We Europe family. Find more like-minded European podcasts at areweeurope.com/audio-family.

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