The Debate

He asked people to pretend he was on the ballot and they did. Voters across the United States have chased US President Donald Trump's Republican majorities from both houses of Congress. How big a landslide is this for the Democrats?

We add up final ballot counts and ask if it's the beginning of the end for a US president who's broken norms in his second term with his outsized use of executive powers. How much of that power will he still wield in his final two years, particularly on the world stage? Will he return the US to the fold of traditional allies, or take out his grievances on Europe and Ukraine and side with Russia and China?

But more importantly, how do Democrats capitalise on their great election night? What kind of legislation will keep all those new voters on board for 2028, when the US elects a new president?

On the day after the midterms, neither party has a clear leader going into the next presidential election cycle. What direction lies ahead for US politics?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Delphine Liou.

Will it be a trickle, a wave, or a tsunami? It's Election Day in the United States, with Democrats hoping to take back one or both houses of Congress. We track the turnout, gauge the mood and raise the curtain ahead of midterm results that are sure to shape the last two years of Donald Trump's second and final term. Will a US president who’s already broken norms with his maximum use of executive powers be affected by the results a little, a lot, or not at all? 

In the run-up to FRANCE 24's election night coverage, we go live to Jessica Le Masurier in Michigan, where there’s been plenty of drama in the Senate race between a progressive Arab-American Democrat and a Trump-backed Republican Congressman; Andres Espinal in Austin, Texas, where a Senate candidate facing a scandal-ridden attorney general hopes to become the first Democrat to win statewide office since 1988; Fraser Jackson in Rosslyn, Virginia, with an eye to close races in the House of Representatives there and across the country; Kethevane Gorjestani in Washington, who covered the White House under the first Trump administration; and Brussels correspondent Dave Keating, author of "The Owned Continent".

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Delphine Liou.

How far will the president of the United States press this time if Tuesday's midterm elections don't go his party's way? From "only if the Republicans win" campaign promises to a US Justice Department that's already got involved in races, will the White House weigh on the outcome? How will ballot counting go? What's changed since Donald Trump's "stop the steal" rhetoric led to the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol?

How much of a stress test are these US midterm elections for a US democracy where it's individual states, not the federal government, that organise elections? Who controls not just the airwaves but also the digital space?

If 2024 was the first TikTok election, this is the first AI election. And if successive court decisions have all but eliminated campaign financing restrictions, then how much will money matter?

In 2024, Democrats told voters that democracy was on the ballot, but swing constituencies mostly shrugged and instead broke for Trump on pocketbook issues. Is democracy actually on the ballot this time? And if so, how much does it matter to citizens?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Delphine Liou.

What in the name of political free speech is off limits? Can you say whatever you want on the campaign trail, no matter how false or racist it is? 

If you're the president of the United States, the answer is apparently yes. When Donald Trump calls Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed a jihadist, it barely makes news. Does exposing voters to a daily diet of slander and slop work? Does it do lasting damage to our societies?

We ask about El-Sayed vying to become the first ever Muslim elected to the US Senate and about his Republican opponent, former Congressman Mike Rogers. We also ask whether, in a swing state that's the birthplace and home of the US auto industry, voters care more about faith and identity or tariffs and inflation.

Read moreA tale of two economies: How America's cost-of-living crisis is shaping US midterm elections

Speaking of the economy, El-Sayed campaigned as a Democratic Socialist. When he won his primary, pundits predicted a progressive wave within the Democratic Party, but in the closing days of the campaign, he's also had former president Barack Obama and the moderate wing on display. It's not just which party wins these midterms – it's how far those parties move away from the political centre.

In Israel, the surprises only start with election night. They're still counting ballots in a vote that featured the highest turnout in decades, historic inroads by Arab parties and Benjamin Netanyahu's worst result since 1999. And yet, Israel's longest-serving prime minister still has a path to staying in power. As we await the definitive makeup of the next parliament, our panel breaks out the calculators and pie charts: in what scenario does Netanyahu survive? Is the issue with the right-wing Likud leader or his policies? 

Horse trading lies ahead between the 11 parties that will make up the next 120-seat Knesset. In the mix, there's nationalists on both sides of the Bibi divide, with bitter battles over religion, the nature of Israel's democracy and over whether a coalition can include the 20 percent of Arab Israelis who this time turned out in droves. Can they enter government or even strike a deal to support the opposition? After years of hardline rhetoric against Palestinians, is that even possible? In other words, is Israel about to get a lot more polarised or forge a whole new path?

Read moreArab parties ‘have woken up’: Israel's uncertain election may deliver surprise kingmakers

Produced by François Picard, Andrew Hilliar, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

The turnout tells the tale. Israelis are casting ballots in their largest numbers in decades in the first general election since the October 7 attacks of 2023. The vote is seen as a referendum on the bloodiest day in the nation's history. But more broadly, what kind of Israel do citizens want? 

While traditional allies have long lost sympathy with the unending punishment inflicted on Gaza and the terror attacks by Jewish settlers in the West Bank, Israelis are instead divided over the new normal for them; how a nation that traditionally strived to avoid prolonged campaigns now lives in a semi-permanent state of war.

The prime minister has even embraced the concept of a "super Sparta state", a nod to the martial ways of the ancient Greek city. A splendid isolation that's backed up by Benjamin Netanyahu's promise to keep the United States on Israel's side. 

We ask about the other issues driving the high turnout, a turnout surely synonymous with surprises. What weight for the country's fastest-growing constituency: the ultra-Orthodox? How about the one in five citizens who are Palestinian? Their turnout is usually lower. And what about all those who have flown in from abroad? Which way will the country break?

Produced by François Picard, Maya Yataghène, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Just two days shy of his 81st birthday, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has emerged as the comeback kid. Coming from behind in the polls after a bitter campaign where he often showed his age, Lula has become the first candidate since Brazil’s return to democracy in the 1980s to win the presidential run-off after trailing in the first round. How did the Workers' Party leader turn a 2.2 million vote deficit against the far right's Flavio Bolsonaro into a 4.4 million vote win? Just three short weeks ago, most races at the federal and state level broke the way of conservatives and the far right.

More broadly, how did Lula break the right's winning streak in the Americas? While blasting Meta and accusing the US and its tech titans of meddling, the incumbent managed to turn around his own digital campaign during the run-off campaign.

We ask about Congressman André Janones, who organised in a hurry on Meta-owned WhatsApp. How does the powerhouse of Latin America walk the line between the United States, its top trading partner China and the rest of the planet?

Read moreLula wins Brazil election but faces uphill battle to govern

Speaking of the rest of the planet, it can be tempting to draw conclusions from Brazil's surprise result, this as the Middle East holds its breath over Tuesday's general election in Israel and as the campaign gets nastier ahead of next week's US midterms. Big elections are also coming up in Spain, Italy, Poland and here in France. Each case is of course different. So what can Lula's Brazil teach us?

Produced by François Picard, Maya Yataghène, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Brazil's future is within the margin of error ahead of Sunday's presidential runoff: most of the latest polls put the far-right's Flavio Bolsonaro ahead of left-wing incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – a lead that's narrowed after last weekend's acrimonious debate. 

We ask about crime, inequality and the other issues that could determine this nail-biter. We also ask whether the nearly 81-year-old Lula has lost his lustre of old, whether Brazilians are ready to overlook the attempted coup conviction of 45-year-old Flavio Bolsonaro's father after he was voted out last time around in 2022, and how Brazil has changed in four years.

For starters, its embrace of social media has only snowballed. Brazil is now the planet's third-biggest user of Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. It's such a factor that Meta, the parent group of WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter, has been branded by critics as the third party in the run-off, with Bolsonaro supporters flooding the zone with content. Will all the virtual campaigning tip the scales on Sunday?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Léonore Jaury.

Youth-driven protests have been popping up all over Europe: in Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Albania, Serbia and Greece. The spark here in France was deteriorating conditions in high schools and universities, particularly for students from underprivileged backgrounds. Meanwhile, wages aren't keeping up with inflation. The housing crisis is front and centre in places like Spain and Portugal, while corruption and democratic backsliding have sparked uproar in Albania and Serbia.

Last Saturday's unexpected violence in France was mirrored on a smaller scale in Italy's financial capital Milan. The response on both sides of the Alps was a message of firmness and the deployment of troops to stop looters tarnished by the far right as led by foreigners.

Will the Melonis and the Le Pens of the continent come out as the big winners? Will this movement mark a turning point for Europe?

Two weeks out from the US midterm elections, there's bipartisan pushback against data centres that suck the water and power out of communities. Just two years ago, ChatGPT was still a brand-new thing, and AI was admired with awe by most voters. Like in 2024, the hot-button issue in swing constituencies remains inflation, or "the price of eggs". But anxiety over the end of the month is now coupled with anxiety over the end of the world.

In 2026, AI bots and large language models write papers and churn out campaign ads. We ask about calls for regulation despite fierce resistance from tech billionaires and whether the latest wobbles from the stock market signal that the race to corner the market and scale up at warp speed may be running out of road.

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.