The Debate

By FRANCE 24 English

The Debate episodes

April 21, 2020 Europe's moment of truth: What common response to Covid-19?
As some nations eye lifting coronavirus restrictions and others move to double down, FRANCE 24 and Deutsche Welle partner up for a special edition of The Debate. Why has Germany been more successful in containing the Covid-19 pandemic than France? And can the Paris-Berlin partnership – often dubbed the "engine" of Europe – rally a continent that is facing challenges from within as well as from the rest of the world?
41 min
March 12, 2020 Shut the borders? Coronavirus tests world leadership
Will shutting the borders stop coronavirus? The US president is banning all Europeans from entering. We ask if he is right and if so, why the exception for the UK and Ireland? At a time when the planet needs to come together to support those in the firing line, allay fears and prevent scapegoating, we ask if global leadership is up to this task.
0 min
March 11, 2020 All over so soon? Biden pulls away from Sanders in Democratic primaries
Is it all over so soon? All those months of speculation, that overcrowded field of candidates, the talk of an open convention and then, just ten days after Joe Biden won his first primary in three runs for US president, the 77-year-old former vice president can boast what arguably looks like an insurmountable lead, drawing to the polls many who do not usually vote and with almost all other rivals lining up behind the presumptive Democratic nominee.
0 min
March 10, 2020 Before and after: The unforeseen consequences of coronavirus
Is human civilisation not so all-powerful after all? When bubonic plague killed off as much as one third of Europe's population in the 14th century, they barely heard about it in Asia and certainly were oblivious in the Americas. Today, the world is so interconnected that an unexpected outbreak of a far, far milder disease is enough to disrupt worldwide supply chains and spread fear in real time to the five continents.
0 min
March 09, 2020 COVID-19 uncertainty: A virus-weakened global economy
It's been a dramatic 48 hours. The Italian government announced on Sunday that more than 15 million people in the industrial heartland of the country were being quarantined for a period of four weeks. It came as the death toll from the coronavirus in Italy shot up to the highest level outside of mainland China. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte argues that these drastic measures are a bitter pill for the country's economy in the short term, but that this will spare the country longer-term economic damage.
0 min
March 05, 2020 Planet in quarantine? The race to counter coronavirus
How safe is safe when it comes to coronavirus and when is safe too safe? Italy has closed all schools and universities for two weeks, Saudi Arabia and Iran have suspended pilgrimages to holy sites, Israel has either banned travellers from affected areas or ordered them to self-quarantine while French authorities regulate the commerce of masks and sanitizing gel. And yet - as deaths mount - we are still asking how dangerous COVID-19 really is. What have we learned since the initial outbreak back in December?
0 min
March 04, 2020 And then there were two: Biden surge forces out Democratic primary rivals
"A big effing deal" is how one pundit put it, borrowing one of Joe Biden's most famous lines. Barack Obama's former vice-president has won the lion's share of Super Tuesday primaries and leap-frogged Bernie Sanders as the frontrunner to win the Democratic nomination for US president. The race is far from over, with nearly two-thirds of delegates still up for grabs. Have moderates coalesced for good around Biden and does he have the right stuff to take on Donald Trump in the fall?
0 min
March 03, 2020 Close enough? Still no majority as Netanyahu leads Israel snap poll
How does Benjamin Netanyahu do it? Israel's longest-serving prime minister is leading the vote tally yet again - this time even though he is only two weeks away from the start of his corruption trial. We pore over the results, ask our panel whether his victory claim is perhaps premature and see what he got right in the country's third snap poll in under a year.
0 min
March 02, 2020 Erdogan's rules: Turkey draws EU, NATO into Idlib offensive
Call it a tale of two Turkish borders. To the south: Syria's Idlib province, where Ankara says it is now directly targeting pro-Assad forces after last week's killing of 34 Turkish soldiers in an air strike. With Russia backing Damascus in its bid to retake the last-rebel held enclave in Syria, we ask just how far it can escalate between now and Thursday's planned trip by Turkey's president to Moscow.
0 min
February 28, 2020 'Pandemic potential': how to counter coronavirus outbreak?
Just as the coronavirus outbreak appears to be stabilizing in China, each day's news cycle brings stories of new nations and new types of patients impacted. Islam's holiest site Mecca shut to pilgrims, Japan, which has ordered all schools closed until the end of spring vacation in early April, is now wondering whether it can stage next summer's Tokyo Olympics. Here in France, health authorities are scrambling to figure out how victims who had no contact with the most infected areas came down with Covid-19.
0 min

About The Debate

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A live debate on the topic of the day, with four guests. From Monday to Thursday at 7:10pm Paris time.

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