The Debate

Live reactions from Rome and from our guests as Cardinal Robert Prevost is elected the first American pope. 

Is this the right moment to roll out the red carpet for Syria’s new leader? France is the first Western country to welcome Ahmed al-Sharaa, who, with the toppling of Bashar al-Assad last December, shed his fatigues and his Islamist militia leader name Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. 

The right moment? Yes, if it is time to fully scrap sanctions and help Syria’s economy recover from more than a decade of civil war. The new masters of Damascus say they need money and time to make good on their pledge of an inclusive country that protects its myriad of minorities.

Already, there have been missteps and bloodbaths, the most recent involving sectarian killings between Sunni militiamen and the Druze community – a community present across the borders of Lebanon and Israel. Israel also carried out strikes on Syria in the name of protecting the Druze. On that score, what message does Emmanuel Macron send to the Israelis when he welcomes al-Sharaa?

Syria was a protectorate of France until its independence in 1946, and in the not-so distant past: Bashar al-Assad was invited to Paris as a guest of honour on Bastille Day in 2008. With hindsight, not a good look despite Assad’s popularity with French conservative and far-right MPs. What’s the right approach this time?

He had the votes, he had a new coalition sealed in writing and ratified by party members, so it seemed like a formality. But Friedrich Merz's lifelong dream of finally becoming German chancellor had to be deferred by a few hours, with the 69-year-old Conservative falling at the first hurdle as backbenchers sent a signal.

A hastily organised second round cancelled out what history may decide to be just a blip. But still, why did Merz fall six seats short in the first secret ballot? Who rebelled inside what now seems like a fragile coalition between Conservatives and Social Democrats?

Germany's Trump and Putin-backed far-right co-leader was quick to call for snap elections. Alice Weidel was savouring her revenge after German domestic intelligence last week qualified her Nazi-rooted party as an extremist group, a status that could in theory lead to a ban for an AfD that polled second on 20 percent in February's elections. 

The moment of wavering in Berlin is also rattling the script in Brussels and Paris, both of which bank on the return of Germany as a strong and steady driver of reform; a nation that just scrapped its fiscal purity rules to level up after decades of chronic underfunding of infrastructure and defence.

Now, with the new coalition in Berlin looking over its shoulder, with far-right challenges in upcoming Romanian and Polish elections, all of Europe is asking: will the centre hold?

Despite an annulled election and a different candidate, the re-run of the first round of Romania's presidential election has produced the same outcome. The pro-Trump, Eurosceptic candidate George Simion took 40 percent of the vote ahead of the May 18 run-off.

Simion – whose party sits in the same voting bloc as Giorgia Meloni's in the European Parliament – skipped the usual victory speech at campaign headquarters to instead air a pre-recorded message where he pledged allegiance to banned pro-Russian candidate Călin Georgescu. Back in November, the latter went from unknown to favourite, thanks to a foreign-backed TikTok campaign. Simion even cast his vote alongside Georgescu.

He will now face reformist pro-EU Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan, whose views are diametrically opposed on Europe, Ukraine and NATO, which is due to boost its presence in Romania to 10,000 troops. What has changed in the EU's newest member? Romania boasts steady growth, but also huge governance and corruption issues.

More broadly, how do former Warsaw Pact nations view the closening ties between the Trump administration and the Kremlin? Romania's run-off will be held on the same day as Poland's own presidential election. Where do loyalties and interests lie in today's fast-changing world?

It's a 48-year-old argument that's once again got nuclear-armed neighbours in a showdown and locals on both sides of the border fearing the worst. India blames Pakistan for Kashmir's worst terror attack in years: the killing of 26 tourists, with non-Muslims singled out and murdered in front of loved ones. Islamabad denies involvement. It blames New Delhi for the March terror attack on a train in Baluchistan. There, too, 26 people were killed, with the matching tolls fuelling speculation and conspiracy theories. So what did happen?

Why now? And how to break the cycle of repeated tensions over Kashmir, a region carved up at independence from Britain in 1947 and whose borders remain disputed to this day?

How far could it go this time? India has suspended a vital 1960 treaty that manages water use between the two neighbours, a treaty that had held through three subsequent wars. Why is this time different?

Then there's Kashmir itself, which on the Indian side lost its partial autonomy back in 2019. What's changed inside the Muslim-majority region since? And what's changed on the Pakistani side after what had been a period of relative détente? Is this really a fight orchestrated by respective capitals?

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

Donald Trump is marking his first 100 days in office with a rally in Michigan where he told enthusiastic supporters "we've just gotten started". Of course, not everyone's a fan. UK magazine The Economist is putting a battered American bald eagle on its cover with the caption "Only 1,361 days to go". But what if it's too late to reverse 100 days of rule by executive order? What if the president's already the winner of a power play with the legislative and judicial branches of government?

Among the daily test of boundaries is last week's arrest by federal agents of a judge in Milwaukee for refusing to let her courtroom become the scene of an arrest of a man wanted for deportation. That's on top of the arrest of foreign students for denouncing Israel's bombing of Gaza, the defunding of congressionally-mandated agencies, the targeting of universities and law firms, and so on.

The world's most powerful nation turning on Ukraine, abandoning the fight against global warming and arbitrarily imposing tariffs on allies has real-world consequences. So will Americans stay silent, while a 248-year-old republic veers away from democracy?

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

It was a moment that seemed to shatter the United States’ aura of invincibility. April 30th, 1975 saw scenes of desperation at the US embassy amid the final pullout of US forces from Vietnam and the takeover of victorious Communist forces from the north. Who knew then that Hanoi and Washington would seal reconciliation thanks to booming trade?

When, during a 2016 visit, then-president Barack Obama celebrated Vietnam's storied street food in a six-dollar dinner with celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, it seemed that the pendulum had swung for good.

But now come Donald Trump's tariffs and Washington's ire at a China-plus-one policy of outsourcing manufacturing to neighbours on the cheap. Beijing's leader Xi Jinping recently paid his respects at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum outside Hanoi while on a regional tour.

Back then, it was the Cold War. Today, what's Vietnam's position on the past and the current superpower showdown?

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Ilayda Habib and Aurore Laborie. 

In the shadow of Donald Trump’s goading, Canadians are casting ballots in a general election. US tariffs and talk of making the world’s second largest nation by size the 51st state are helping flip the momentum from the opposition conservatives to Liberals that suffered from incumbent fatigue after a decade in power – that is until 99 days ago.

Starting on Inauguration Day, Trump’s belligerent tone stunned his neighbours to the north. We asked about former central banker Mark Carney who stepped in and called the snap vote after unpopular predecessor Justin Trudeau bowed out. What’s the plan for a nation unsure about the lasting damage across the world’s longest unprotected border?

And what to make of rival Pierre Poilievre, who hails from the right wing of the Conservative Party? The MP from Ontario was actually born in Alberta, the oil-rich western province often depicted as Canada’s answer to Texas and the most sympathetic to Trump. Is Canada polarising the way the US has?

In Canada, whose head of state remains Britain’s monarch, the fault line in politics has long been between English speakers and the sovereigntist of French-speaking Québec. What’s changed?

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Ilayda Habib and Aurore Laborie. 

It's been a sleepless night in Kyiv, after what sounds a lot like a threat from Washington. Between the US president's pressure on Ukraine to sign on the dotted line, and Vladimir Putin's deadliest nighttime raids on Kyiv in months, how does Volodymyr Zelensky react?

And what about European allies? What will they do if Ukraine is coerced into giving up not only its claim to the Crimean Peninsula but all the territory occupied by the Russian invaders?

Before heading to Rome for Saturday's papal funeral that's set to feature interested parties, Ukraine's president was in South Africa – host of the next G20 summit and key member of the BRICS club of emerging powers. How to convince the Global South and push back against disinformation when some of it is being repeated by the White House? 

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Ilayda Habib and Aurore Laborie. 

It took years of painstaking negotiations to reach the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. So can Washington and Tehran now really do a deal in weeks?

On a trip to China this Wednesday, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is talking up the chances of an agreement with the Trump administration. His government has even suggested an arms deal, this despite the absence of diplomatic relations since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. What's on the table in the talks that resume on Saturday in Oman?

And should we be connecting the dots between US negotiator Steve Witkoff's previous stopover in Moscow, where he's haggling with the Kremlin over Ukraine? After all, Russia has just ratified its strategic partnership deal with Iran. Are the two files separate, or is this two-for-one bargaining by a Trump administration angling for quick results?

And then there's Trump's biggest allies in the region: Saudi Arabia and Israel. Both oppose Iran getting the bomb. Recently, the US president reportedly even had to rein in Israeli plans to bomb key Iranian sites. Would we now be looking at a safer region or a Middle East nuclear arms race?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Alessandro Xenos.