The Debate

A way to pull the rug out from under Hamas or a scheme to permanently chase Palestinians out of parts of Gaza? Israel insisting that a brand-new Geneva-registered aid group aims to deliver long-awaited aid to secure distribution sites while preventing the Palestinian militant group from diverting food and medicine.

With the United Nations out of the loop, and Gaza residents forced to travel vast distances mostly for what look like rations, the international community warns it's a bid to force the displacement of a population that's only seen a trickle of aid since the embargo that started in March. What's Israel's ultimate goal?

And will the United States sign off on a move condemned by some of the Jewish State's closest allies like Germany and Italy? More broadly, what's to become of Gaza two-point-four million citizens, two-thirds of whom live in refugee camps? The daily bombing continues, but is there a plan?

 

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.

With 299 victims over 25 years, why wasn’t serial rapist Joël Le Scouarnec stopped sooner? Closing arguments in the trial of the 74-year-old surgeon in the western French city of Vannes. We’ll ask about a man convicted of purchasing child pornography online two decades ago and yet investigators failed to uncover worse crimes and the medical board allowed him to continue to practice.

France’s largest-ever sex abuse trial concludes, exposing decades of abuse at the Bétharram Catholic school in the southwest. The children of Prime Minister François Bayrou attended the school, where his wife also worked. Bayrou, however, maintains that he was unaware of the abuse at the time. At what point does it become a cover-up and when does deference cross a line in a nation where children are taught to obey authority figures?

Most important are the victims. On the stand, Le Scouarnec eventually confessed – but to the plaintiffs, his answers felt mechanical, devoid of real remorse. Why is it so often the victims who carry the shame? Two of them took their own lives. How can that shame be overcome, and how does one begin to find closure?

Produced by Théophile Vareille, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.

Is it something in the water? Why insist on bottled brands at every meal when in a country like France, it flows freely from the tap – even if it’s not exactly free. We’ll ask about old habits and new realities that force a rethink of what we drink.

Anger bubbling over this week with the French senate concluding that the government “at the highest level” covered up for Nestlé which continued to put the words "natural mineral water" on bottles and cans of iconic brands such as Perrier even though the threat of bacteria and pollution have long forced the Swiss food giant to filter the output of its spring in southeast France. Wherein lies the real issue here… for consumers… citizens…

… and for the planet? We often cover stories about water scarcity. But it’s also water management, in this instance how we provide and distribute drinking water. Whose job is it to make sure that it’s clean, that it’s fairly meted out? And who gets to profit from the service of providing this vital necessity? 

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Jimena Morales-Velasco, Alessandro Xenos.

It’s a White House visit preceded by some heavy-handed sales tactics. South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa in the lion’s den of the Oval Office after Donald Trump advisor Elon Musk accused Pretoria of discrimination over a stalled commercial deal to buy his Starlink low orbit satellite system.

Ramaphosa reportedly now offering a workaround of post-Apartheid local Black ownership laws, laws to address historical inequality in a nation where whites make up 7-percent of the population but still own 70 percent of the land.

Adding pressure on Donald Trump’s visitor, a lie that’s even appeared unsolicited on Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot. Grok talking up a supposed genocide against whites in South Africa – a country that’s got way too high a homicide rate for sure, but where in reality one percent of the victims are whites. Trump himself talking up the trope and offering refugee status to whites.

So how should the nation that currently hosts the rotating chair of the G20 handle its relations with the United States? How should it handle the South African-born Musk who enjoys outsized leverage it seems? And more broadly, what path for a South Africa that needs foreign investment to fulfil its potential?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Jimena Morales-Velasco, Alessandro Xenos.

Aid returning at a trickle into Gaza after a two-month blockade, but troops are on the move and the bombing continues with an average of dozens killed a day the past week. Israel’s prime minister talking up what might sound like a permanent reoccupation. This collective punishment of two million civilians, many, says the UN on the brink of starvation, is exactly the sort of overreaction that Hamas wanted when it perpetrated the worst terror attack in Israel’s history more than 18 months ago. 

At the time, allies insisted on Israel’s right to respond. But now, even nations with historical reasons for giving the Jewish state a wide berth are critical, the likes of Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK which has just summoned Israel's ambassador while suspending free trade talks. It's signed a communiqué with Canada and France which may recognize a Palestinian state next month. We’ll ask how far the pivot’s gone since October 7th and what sort of future for Palestinians and for Israelis. 

 

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Jimena Morales-Velasco.

Two weeks after the far right's George Simion garnered a whopping 41 percent in the first round of presidential elections, a surge in voter turnout instead propelled the pro-EU mayor of Bucharest Nicosur Dan onto a rocky road to victory.

Dan wasn’t even a candidate when the constitutional council annulled last November's first round of voting and barred pro-Russian TikTok star Calin Georgescu over foreign meddling and campaign financing records that claimed zero spending whatsoever. The call to do over the election drew criticism from the likes of JD Vance and Elon Musk in the US but also from some European liberals who felt the issue should have been sorted at the ballot box. We’ll ask how this result’s going down and more broadly about a onetime Soviet bloc dictatorship often dogged by corruption and that’s felt the growing pains of EU membership. What next for a frontline state to the war in Ukraine and how does the rest of Europe address the grievances of citizens in a fast-changing world?

 

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Jimena Morales-Velasco.

In the end, Vladimir Putin did not go to Istanbul for the one-on-one on offer. Instead, in what critics call a worse snub than an empty chair, the Russian president dispatched his former culture minister, a "greater Russia" ideologue, for the first face-to-face meeting with Ukraine since 2022. What's the Trump administration's next move after pushing so hard for talks?

We know Zelensky's next move: travelling to Ankara instead of Istanbul, where the Ukrainian president met his Turkish counterpart. Turkey's star power is on the rise, with its influence unseating that of Moscow in neighbouring Syria and Trump heaping praise on a fellow NATO ally whose role as Black Sea arbiter and arms exporter could prove crucial.

Then there's Ukraine's European allies, who are talking tougher on sanctions and nuclear deterrence. Part of that is about Putin; part of it about Trump. French President Emmanuel Macron also this week spoke of territorial concessions. The idea is that the time for talks is indeed approaching. If so, do Paris, London, Berlin, Warsaw and friends have a plan?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Annarosa Zampaglione, Alessandro Xenos.

Once a year, movie fans from near and far flock to the French Riviera resort of Cannes to catch a glimpse of their favourite celluloid stars: real stars, in the flesh. They've always seemed larger than life – particularly on a big screen –but now, in the age of virtual reality, what exactly is real? These days, what still resonates as authentic in the make-believe world of cinema?

The Hollywood actors and screenwriters' strike of 2023 was in large part about technology encroaching on artistic creation: stealing the hard work of some, pushing others out of a job. So, is artificial intelligence good or bad for movies and movie making?

And what about the spectator? What kind of demand exists in the digital age? And with so much of the planet spending hours a day already on screens, how is that changing not just film but humanity as a whole?

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Annarosa Zampaglione.

He’s back in the Gulf to do deals. But a familiar ally seems cut out of all the dealmaking. Donald Trump is on familiar ground in Saudi Arabia, where he made his first trip as president back in 2017. The US president may have said no to ceremonial Arabic coffee, but he seems ready to approve a landmark civilian nuclear agreement – one that no longer seems linked to Riyadh normalising ties with Israel.

Israel was left out of Monday's release by Hamas of what's thought to be the last US citizen held by the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip; a goodwill gesture before Trump travels on to Qatar. Has Washington grown tired of Benjamin Netanyahu's forever war?

Last month at the White House, the Israeli prime minister seemed caught off guard when Trump in his presence announced negotiations with Iran. Under Trump I, the Saudis would have also pushed back hard. But Riyadh's relations with Tehran have since thawed.

And if it's all about the money – after all, the president of the United States says he's not a man to turn down a free plane like the one the Qataris are offering to replace Air Force One – then who's the highest bidder in this new chapter of transactional diplomacy?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Jimena Morales-Velasco, Alessandro Xenos. 

What started it? Who ended it? After the worst week of fighting between India and Pakistan in a quarter century, the whole world is breathing a sigh of relief that it didn’t escalate further between nuclear-armed neighbours .... and wondering how much superpower showdowns weigh on the dynamic in the decades-old rivalry over Kashmir.

What started with a terror attack spilled over from the disputed territory, with Chinese-made military hardware displayed in battle for the first time, disputes over the reported downing of French fighter jets and the US claiming a starring role in mediating a ceasefire.

We also ask whether India's Hindu nationalist prime minister and Pakistan's religiously devout army chief of staff emerge strengthened or weakened? How to get beyond a zero-sum game between Narendra Modi and Asim Munir and avoid a repeat of what has just been endured on both sides of the line of control?

Produced by François Picard, Théophile Vareille, Juliette Laffont, Jimena Morales-Velasco.