The Debate

A string of coups and the pushing out of former colonial power France in favour of Russian support haven't stopped insurgents from going from strength throughout the so-called coup belt from Burkina Faso to Niger. We ask about the blockade on Bamako that's made it perilous for fuel delivery trucks to reach the capital of landlocked Mali, and what it would take to repel the JNIM.   Mali has seen this movie before. The French intervened back in 2013, when insurgents tried to take the capital a first time. But that hero's welcome in Timbuktu for then-president François Hollande is now a distant memory. How do Malians take back their own country? What's the alternative to what the jihadists are offering? And what's the spillover effect of potential failed states at the heart of the Sahel for the region, and for Europe? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Could the artificial intelligence boom already be running out of road? We examine the warning signs. To think that three short years ago, the commercial launch of ChatGPT took the world by storm. AI has since sparked a global race for cash, energy resources and data – all to feed the seemingly insatiable appetite of large language model computing systems. With a few US companies dominating the AI race – and a US president who's all-in with billionaires – market watchers worry about investors tempted by the easy money of rising tech stocks at the expense of the entire rest of the economy. Is it a bubble? Is it about to burst? And with what consequences? How should Europe and the rest of the world prepare? More broadly, is AI changing humanity and our world for better – or for worse? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Charles Wente, Ilayda Habip & Jean-Vincent Russo

From radical insurgent with a $10 million bounty on his head to a red carpet welcome at the White House, the rebranding of Syria's Ahmed al-Sharaa is now complete. The former jihadist has become the first-ever Syrian president invited inside the Oval Office. We ask about the terms and conditions of a visit that surely seals a regional realignment on a scale unseen since the 1979 fall of the Shah of Iran. How much did backers Turkey and Saudi Arabia press for this moment? Where does it leave Israel, who on the same day is getting a visit from the US president's son-in-law Jared Kushner to remind his hosts to play nice with the Turks during phase two of the Gaza peace initiative? Does this all mean that the same Donald Trump who campaigned against foreign interventions will wind up involving the United States more – not less – in the Middle East? And where does it leave Syria, where the US still backs the Kurds in the fight against the Islamic State group and where Christian and Druze minorities have plenty of reason to doubt Sharaa's promise of guaranteeing their safety? More broadly, how soon can the new masters of Damascus deliver a peace dividend to citizens still reeling from decades of dictatorship, corruption and civil war? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente & Jean-Vincent Russo

When it came to the Amazon, his predecessor was all for "chop, baby, chop". An easy act to follow if you're hosting the world for a climate summit. Since the return of Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, deforestation has continued but drastically slowed in what's by far the world's largest rainforest. But by bringing the United Nations COP30 summit to the Amazonian city of Belem, Lula is also drawing attention to Brazil's broader track record on the environment. The South American powerhouse may boast of an electricity grid that's 90 percent powered by renewables, but last month it also approved drilling for offshore oil across from the mouth of the Amazon River. Lula is defiant, arguing it's all with an eye to financing green investment and funding social programmes for the poor. Is his a balanced approach or a sellout?

One year after a presidential election where Donald Trump swept swing states and secured majorities in both houses of the US Congress, a first test has produced a radically different result. 34-year-old Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani has blown past establishment candidates for mayor of New York, unveiling his transition team this Wednesday. We ask about Mamdani's win and the highest turnout in the city's municipal elections in more than half a century.  Read moreProgressive Democrat Zohran Mamdani wins New York City mayoral race We also ask about wins for more moderate Democrats elsewhere in the US and whether Republicans should worry ahead of next year's Congressional midterms. Donald Trump attributes the setback in part to the fact that he wasn't on the ballot. The US president may have a point: since returning to office, he has monopolised the airwaves. How do the TikTok skills of Zohran Mamdani measure up to the politics of outrage coming from the far right? Will Trump double down on retribution? Will he send federal troops to more cities run by Democrats, including his native New York? More broadly, will democracy in America now grow more polarised, or will the centre eventually hold?

Protesters are fuming at Chinese e-commerce giant Shein electing the French capital as its debut point for a physical in-shop presence. We ask about behemoths that churn out clothes faster than we can scroll, Shein's choice of the iconic Right Bank department store BHV for its launch and how a new controversy fuels the feeling that this global orgy of consumerism is out of control: Shein is removing from its platform child-like sex dolls that fly in the face of French and EU laws against paedo-pornography.  Shein's flooding of the market with ultra-fast fashion, often peddled by social media influencers, is just the latest iteration of an issue with globalisation's conveniences. Supporters say companies like Shein make style affordable to all, but critics see them an existential threat to humanity's craftsmanship, not to mention the environment. Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Is too much effort devoted to the planet's warming and not enough to helping humans adapt to the new normal? The Microsoft co-founder-cum-billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates is turning the heat up on activists traveling to the COP30, the annual UN climate summit this year in the Brazilian Amazon city of Belem. We review the argument that the transition to cleaner energies is already bearing fruit, making the Paris Agreement projections of 2015 obsolete. Or, with coal and oil production still rising, is it too soon to take the foot off the gas of green investment? In an age of echo chambers and slashed public spending, critics have seized on Gates's remarks as proof, they say, that climate change is a hoax – or, as is the case in Europe, to renew calls to roll back environmental norms in the name of competitiveness. So, as insurance companies count the cost of rising sea levels, fiercer storms and deadlier fires, how to best invest in humanity's common future? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

After launching a trade war with China, Donald Trump is now declaring a deal is at hand for a one-year truce. With nothing yet signed, we ask about the South Korean sit-down between the US president and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, promises of reduced tariffs and computer chip exports by the US, the easing of restrictions on rare earth minerals and a return to soybean imports by Beijing. We also ask about the choreography of a shorter-than-expected one hour-and-40-minute meeting in South Korea, followed by Trump's decision to skip the regional APEC summit that followed. The US president will instead return to the White House for a Halloween trick-or-treat ceremony. More broadly, will the United States remain committed to Asian allies, what with its troops permanently stationed in Japan and South Korea and its historic support for Taiwan and the Philippines? And is that compatible with hard-to-read great power bargaining? Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.

The whole world is watching 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani, whose army of Gen Z supporters have propelled the Democratic Socialist to heavy favorite to win next Tuesday's race for mayor of New York City. We ask about his promises of rent freezes and free buses and whether that's too radical for the world's financial capital. We also ask whether the best way to break through polarised echo chambers is through moderation, as personified by Mamdani's closest rival, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo. Plus we explore policy differences and age gaps, and whether, when it comes to Gen Z, New York City might be an outlier. As supporters of assassinated far-right activist Charlie Kirk will tell you, there's a whole demographic out there that's up for grabs, and not only in the United States. Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri and Guillaume Gougeon.

First it was a revolution confiscated, then a dispute between coup leaders that became a civil war. Three years on, Sudan is wondering if the fall of a key city in the western Darfur region is the cue for a second partition of the country. The massacre of civilians in Darfur is drawing comparisons with the genocide there two decades ago. That’s hardly surprising as the paramilitary leader who led the 18-month siege of El-Fasher is the same Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – aka General Hemedti – who was an instrumental leader of the notorious Janjaweed militias that operated in Darfur under deposed dictator Omar al-Bashir. We ask if Hemedti, himself a Darfuri, wants a South Sudan-style break with Khartoum or to take the whole of the country with help from his Emirati backers.  Human rights monitors accuse both sides of war crimes. The forces of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan also have their foreign backers. Who, then, can stop what's currently the world's bloodiest conflict, where the overwhelming majority of casualties are civilians? Read moreWarnings of executions and ethnic cleansing mount in Sudan's El-Fasher Produced by François Picard, Charles Wente, Rebecca Gnignati, Riham Mahir & Jean-Vincent Russo

"Speak softly and carry a big stick." That was US President Theodore Roosevelt's adage to stake out Washington's turf in the Americas. More than a century on, it's being evoked by some after an upset win in Argentina's midterm elections by a close ally of the current occupant of the White House. Only Donald Trump didn't speak softly. He bluntly warned that rejection of the party of far-right libertarian Javier Milei would imperil Washington's $20 billion lifeline for a peso that's teetering. We ask about Javier Milei's victory, his bid to dismantle the state spending system of his predecessors, whether this result is enough to save a currency that's somehow never very far from its next crisis, and whether Washington owns what happens next in Argentina, Latin America's third-largest economy. On that score, what lessons can be drawn for regional rivals Brazil and Colombia, where a left-wing leader finds himself cut off from US aid and with US navy ships blowing up alleged drug trafficking vessels off his shores? Produced by François Picard, Charles Wente, Rebecca Gnignati, Guillaume Gougeon & Jean-Vincent Russo

It has been a long seven days — even by Russia-Ukraine standards. Last week at this time, the talk was of Tomahawk cruise missiles. But instead of delivering missiles, Donald Trump gave a closed-door earful at the White House to Volodymyr Zelensky. Then came talk of a mano à mano U.S.–Russia summit in Budapest.   Now the tide has turned again. No summit—just U.S. sanctions on Russia’s top two oil companies, an announcement coinciding with China and India reviewing their orders of Russian imports and the price of crude is soaring. Why the sudden about-face? And is Vladimir Putin actually feeling the pinch? Ordinary Russians are grappling with inflation and shortages, a well-documented reality. But do the elites of Moscow and Saint Petersburg even realize they are under economic pressure? We’ll ask about the current mindset there. Finally, on the frontlines, Europe’s bloodiest war in living memory continues to grind on, accompanied by a steady stream of populist rhetoric and nuclear threats.     Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Ilayda Habip and Daniel Whittington

The Louvre is reopening for the first time since Sunday’s heist of the century. We will follow leads in a daylight robbery now estimated at 88 million euros and check security at the world’s most visited museum. For now, the shuttering on the getaway window looks as tenuous as the standing of under-pressure authorities, the president of the Louvre answering earlier to a French senate panel said. Beyond security lapses, is the 800-year-old fortress-turned-palace-turned museum simply too big to deal with the age of overtourism and shrinking public funding? And after the 2019 fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, it is another cherished landmark making world news for all the wrong reasons. How much can a jewelry caper fuel the general feeling of citizens that they are being ripped off by elected leaders who do not deliver?     Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Ilayda Habip and Daniel Whittington

Sometimes former presidents do go to jail. Nicolas Sarkozy has begun his five-year sentence over the illicit financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya. Is this proof that justice is truly blind? Or, as his supporters contend, are we seeing revenge by magistrates who were often maligned by the 70-year-old conservative when he was in power? France is split on that debate. Meanwhile, Emmanuel Macron welcomed Sarkozy to the presidential palace last week ahead of his incarceration and his justice minister says he'll go visit the former leader at Paris's La Santé prison. So does jailing a former head of state really erode faith in institutions, which are already put to the test with the current showdown between a lame-duck president and a splintered parliament? Or should it be about the facts of the case, the dealings with Gaddafi and his head of intelligence Abdullah Senussi, seen as the mastermind of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the 1989 downing of a French passenger plane over Niger? That all depends on which echo chamber you live in. Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Ilayda Habip and Jean-Vincent Russo

Why is the United States suddenly in the business of blowing boats out of the water in the Caribbean? And why without summation? More than 30 people have been killed in seven strikes that started in early September, all under the orders of the same Donald Trump who wants a Nobel Peace Prize and who questions 80 years of US military presence in Europe, Korea and Japan. He's now gone beyond a war on drug trafficking in the Caribbean with not-so veiled threats to overthrow Venezuela’s regime. We ask about the operation and the resignation of the head of the US Southern Command that's in charge. This regional policy harks back to Trump's Inauguration Day nostalgia for William McKinley, his predecessor who started the 1898 war that wiped out Spain’s foothold in the Americas. Is all this really to please anti-leftist Latino voters in his secretary of state’s native Florida?  We also ask what’s next for Venezuela, a nation whose leader by all accounts stole the last presidential poll. How much support can Nicolas Maduro garner in this showdown, both at home and abroad? Produced by Delphine Liou, Rebecca Gnignatti, Ilayda Habip and Jean-Vincent Russo

Whenever Donald Trump boasts of solving eight wars in eight months, the US president always adds a sigh of regret and repeats that he thought Ukraine and Russia would be the easiest one to solve. He did it again at Monday's signing in Egypt of the plan to end the war in Gaza. So if rolling out the red carpet in Alaska and bringing Vladimir Putin in from the cold didn't work, what will? More pressure on Russia, it seems, with NATO allies like Germany pledging to purchase military hardware for Ukraine that's made in the USA. We ask about those Tomahawk long-range missiles that will figure top of Volodymyr Zelensky's wish list when he travels to the White House on Friday. The Oval Office dumpster fire that was their first encounter back in February is now a fading memory. And since Trump divides the world into winners and losers, could his calculus be shifting, what with Ukraine resisting Russia's summer onslaught and hurting Moscow's pocketbook with successful long-range drone strikes against oil installations deep inside enemy territory? We ask about momentum and prospects for what's already a very, very long war. Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Daniel Whittington, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Can we really draw a link between Nepal and Madagascar? Bangladesh and Peru? Indonesia and Morocco? Why are waves of defiance sweeping nations that are oceans apart? That defiance now bears a name: Gen Z protests. The generation born after 1997 has had its fill of corrupt elders clinging to power – and their offspring flaunting excess on social media. There too, new hashtags have taken root: nepo babies and nepo kids. The contempt of the ruling classes is as old as French queens quipping, “let them eat cake”. So what is it about the digital age that seems to rub it particularly hard in young people’s faces – or rather, on their screens? Back in 2011, when the Arab Spring erupted, leaderless movements in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere were often branded “Facebook revolutions”. What’s changed now that young people have migrated to Instagram, TikTok and Discord? And what happens to leaderless movements today? Just ask the citizens of Madagascar, whose Gen Z movement led to Tuesday’s toppling of a president – and to a military coup. More broadly, how do we meet the aspirations of a generation that has moved to the cities, paid its dues in underfunded schools, endured blackouts and inadequate hospitals – and has finally had enough? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Daniel Whittington, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Was it enough for France’s minority government to clear the first hurdle of a trigger-happy, hostile parliament that can call a vote of no confidence at any time? Reappointed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is offering a suspension of Emmanuel Macron's flagship reform – the raising of the retirement age. We’ll review the general policy speech of a Lecornu who, this time at least, made it to the National Assembly. Last week, his initial coalition government imploded spectacularly after just 14 hours.   Lecornu may be willing to bend – but what about his boss? Throughout one and a half terms in power, Emmanuel Macron has rarely been one for compromise … until now. The French president knows that a snap election would only further shrink his support in parliament. Markets may be unsettled by France’s spiralling public spending – but not as much as by the prospect of prolonged political paralysis or a populist surge. On that front, Macron is not alone in refusing to compromise. Just look at a splintered political landscape that stretches from the far right to the hard left. What does that say about the times we live in? Can Macron compromise? What should we make of his cabinet and Lecornu’s speech? We’ll need two pie charts of the National Assembly: one showing the blocs in simple terms, and another highlighting the Socialists. A suspension may be a concession – with Sébastien Lecornu offering to freeze the retirement age reform that Emmanuel Macron forced through parliament in 2023 over the objections of trade unions and public opinion. In May 2024, Macron’s decision to dissolve parliament backfired. His centrist bloc lost seats, the far right made historic gains, and the left united in an electoral alliance. That alliance has since unravelled, but the current makeup of parliament means that the Socialists, with their 69 seats, and the conservatives, Les Républicains, with 50, now find themselves as potential kingmakers. This time, under the leadership of Bruno Retailleau – a conservative with presidential ambitions – Lecornu has assembled a cabinet with fewer political heavyweights. Will the Socialists implode if they choose to compromise? What will the French accept in the name of reducing the deficit? What counts as politically acceptable? As for the far right’s Marine Le Pen – the National Rally leader staged a theatrical walkout during the parliamentary speech that followed the Prime Minister’s, this time during remarks by conservative Laurent Wauquiez. Le Pen’s party remains firm in its stance from last week, when she was not invited to the consultations at the Élysée Palace. Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Jean-Vincent Russo, Lila Paulou, Ilayda Habip and Charles Wente.

There are tears of grief, tears of anguish ... and on Monday, there are also tears of joy. For the first time in two years, Israelis and Palestinians are allowing themselves to exhale. We’ll discuss the return of the last hostages with our correspondent in Tel Aviv, the release of 2,000 prisoners from Israeli jails, the ramping up of aid into Gaza, and the silencing of guns. In a region accustomed to dashed hopes, could something positive emerge from what Donald Trump calls a peace deal? There was the hero's welcome for Donald Trump in Israel, hailed by both supporters and detractors of the Israeli prime minister. In his speech, Trump turned to the Israeli president and asked Isaah Herzog to pardon Benjamin Netanyahu in his corruption trial. In the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik, the love in continued with everyone from the leaders of France, Germany and the UK to those of Iraq and Indonesia present for the signing of the 20-point plan. Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Lila Paulou, Ilayda Habip, and Charles Wente.

Forty-eight hours after France’s new government collapsed after just 14 hours, caretaker Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is still trying to pull off the impossible and a strike a deal that can get a budget over the line before the end of the year and avoid a further spiralling of public borrowing costs. But for that, you need a compromise. To Lecornu's left, the Socialists want to go back on the 2023 pension reform; to the right, the conservative Les Republicains say "no way". We review the stumbling points and possible ways President Emmanuel Macron can avoid another snap election that's sure to further shrink his support in France's lower house of parliament, 18 months out from the election to pick his successor. The front-runner for 2027 is staying far from Paris on the PM's self-imposed deadline day for a compromise. The far-right's Marine Le Pen is instead claiming that all this haggling in the high halls of power smacks of a cabal. And while the left and the moderate right tear themselves apart, her National Rally party's been quietly canvassing constituents, anticipating their next trip to the ballot box. Produced by François Picard, Théophile Vareille, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.