The Debate

After contagion in the Arabian Peninsula, should the entire Horn of Africa fear a domino effect? Just as US President Donald Trump’s decision to invade Iran drew the Saudis back to Yemen, did threats over the Bab al-Mandab Strait light the fuse in Ethiopia, where last week, unresolved issues between the government and its Tigray region erupted? Could a potential return to civil war draw in regional rivals?

Ethiopia didn't need pressure over the Red Sea to ignite. The breakdown of dialogue after the 2022 Pretoria agreement was always going to be a ticking time bomb for Africa's second-most populous nation.

And in four years, alliances have shifted, with neighbouring Eritrea no longer on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's side and Addis Ababa accusing Egypt and Sudan of supporting the TPLF rebels. Sudan has its own vicious civil war, where Abiy is accused of siding with the same UAE whose arming of RSF militias is well documented.

How and who can stop a return to all-out civil war in Ethiopia? Who can prevent a regional war?

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

A minor bump on the French far right's road to power, or a car crash that wipes out years of rebranding? Bombshell allegations of past anti-Semitic tropes by the man Marine Le Pen has touted as her future prime minister could test her years-long effort to convince French voters that the National Rally is a party of government, rather than the fringe far-right National Front of old.

We examine the evidence and hear the denial from 31-year-old Jordan Bardella. We also chart his rise to being groomed as an eventual stand-in for the presidential frontrunner after an appeals court allowed Le Pen to run despite her corruption conviction.

We ask how the accusations land for a party that, since the October 7 attacks against Israel, has sought to portray itself as a rampart defending Frances Jewish community against anti-Semitism.

Le Pen's gut reaction was to blast the report by investigative news website Mediapart as a plot, a conspiracy. We happen to live in an age when conspiracy theories flow freely: including, of course, the conspiracy theory that Jews secretly run the world.

So what could these allegations mean for Marine Le Pen's prospects in 2027?

Produced by François Picard, Charles Wente, Rebecca Gnignati, Guillaume Gougeon and Ilayda Habip

There's a new pope in town and he's got very different ideas on what France's far right calls the defense of Christian civilisation. Leo XIV is concluding his trip to France in the eastern city of Metz, which is closely associated with a founding father of present-day European federalism, Robert Schuman. There, the head of the world's largest organised religion proudly stated that Europe's roots are Christian, dating back to the Romans, all the while hailing an EU model that transcends "us versus them" ideology and brushes aside "might is right" in favour of human rights and international law. 

We ask about the schism with the likes of French presidential frontrunner Marine Le Pen and the leader of her National Rally party, Jordan Bardella. How much does Leo's brand of Catholicism clash with the values of a Eurosceptic far right that continues to make inroads in France and just over the border in neighbouring Germany? 

More broadly, how much of a moral authority can this pope and this Church be in 2026? During his four-day tour of France, Leo acknowledged the damage done by systemic child sex abuse within the Church when he met with victims. Beyond that private meeting, he drew huge crowds. How will this moment be remembered?

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

It's their AI world and we're just living in it. If that's the feeling of those who suffer from AI anxiety, it may worsen watching the Chinese president's first state visit to Washington in nine years. If there's one issue that the planet's biggest superpowers agree on, it's that now is not the time for global regulation of artificial intelligence. As they sit down to a White House state dinner just hours after news that OpenAI had hacked the Australian government, we ask who will call to task the US tech titans at the table.

Read moreOpenAI AI agent breached Australian government website, PM says

While they push for more money, energy and easy access to our personal content, is the rest of the world reduced to the role of spectator?

On that score, we ask why the US president's red lines have moved over the years: rolling back tariffs on China, easing chip restrictions and blocking a ban on TikTok. National interest? Personal gain? And what about a China keen to control what citizens can or cannot access when they reach for their chatbots?

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

It's all about his high holiness here in France. For weeks already, the nation's been abuzz over the upcoming visit of Leo XIV, from Friday evening mass at Notre-Dame Cathedral and another mass before 600,000 faithful outside Paris to the pilgrimage city of Lourdes and a trip to Metz, hometown of father of European unity Robert Schuman. 

A papal visit to France usually draws much attention to the symbiotic love-hate relationship between the Church and a secular state of mostly lapsed Catholics. And yes, there have been grumblings about the visit's cost to taxpayers. But the pushback is relatively muted. This new American pope seems genuinely popular here in France; we ask why.

Read morePope Leo XIV to trace back French ancestry, spiritual roots on visit to France

Perhaps part of the answer lies with Leo's first stop – UNESCO – where he'll speak about artificial intelligence in what's billed as the follow-up to his spring encyclical on the issue.

As panellists in this studio repeated just last week, machines per se are not taking over. But the happy few who control the most powerful AI tools have already amassed outsized power. Are the existential threats posed by technology a matter of faith, sanctity of life, or morals? And what does the world's largest organised religion bring to the table?

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

A year ago, Donald Trump went to the rostrum of the United Nations General Assembly and after taking an axe to US aid and development funding, he read the world the riot act. One Iran war later, the US president is sticking to script, with a speech that borrowed much of the language from last year. With citizens on five continents now feeling the pain at the pump, we ask what it will take to tame a global energy crisis whose potential spiral mirrors the contagion of hostilities from the Strait of Hormuz to the mouth of the Red Sea.

On that score, Trump is blaming a global diesel shortage on Ukraine's drone strikes on Russian critical infrastructure. But Russia only accounts for 6 percent of global diesel exports.

We debrief the bilateral meeting between the US president and his Ukranian counterpart. With no end in sight to conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, one notable absence at UN headquarters is the leader of China. Xi Jinping has passed over New York for Washington, where he'll discuss the future of AI with his hosts – a White House state dinner that reminds those present in New York of the old adage that if you're not at the table, you're on the menu.

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

There's the inroads of the far right, but also the broader desire for change. Introducing Berlin's answer to Zohran Mamdani: Elif Eralp, who led the far-left Die Linke party's historic win in Sunday's municipal elections in Berlin. We ask if the 45-year-old daughter of Turkish political exiles can push through her promises of rent freezes and nationalisation of private real estate companies. Just like in New York last year, affordable housing was a hot-button issue. It didn't hurt that her party ran a social media-savvy campaign.

Contrast that with the German chancellor's Christian Democrats, who not only lost the capital but for the first time since World War II failed to win enough votes to sit in a regional parliament.

The result in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg–West Pomerania is also a pain point for Germany's other historic big tent party: yes, the Social Democrats limited the damage, but the far-right AfD won more votes.

A capital city that goes red, a rust belt region that's turning increasingly far right – it's all part of a pattern. Is it about winners and losers of globalisation, a generation gap with younger voters sick of all the boomers who cling to power, some even say a gender gap with younger women voting left and younger men far right. How fast and how deep is the change in our politics?

Produced by François Picard, Théophile Vareille, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

As the United States threatens Europe with more tariffs and eyes Greenland, Russia tests the continent’s resolve over Ukraine and the planet overheats, where do citizens feel the biggest threat is coming from? In her Wednesday state of the Union speech, the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen went big on manning the borders, suggesting new tools to better deal with migration. This comes against in a context of Ceuta where over two days in July, tens of thousands of mostly Moroccans overran Spain’s North African enclave.

A blame game ensued as well as a diplomatic row between Madrid’s Socialist-led government and Italian far-right leader Georgia Meloni. Then there was the return of border checks in places like Germany where the far-right’s again eyeing inroads in regional elections this coming weekend. Our panel will comment on some of Real Madrid’s top stars refusing a show of solidarity with Ceuta which they say could be misinterpreted as an anti-migrant message. What do Europeans want? And what does an aging population need?

Produced by François Picard, Théophile Vareille, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Delphine Liou.

US president Donald Trump has previously talked about making Canada the 51st state, Now, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Europe, and the president of the European Commission has proposed the country ‘associate membership’. In this edition, we ask what that means and how it differs from the close status afforded to Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the UK – countries which Carney is also visiting ahead of his own Strasbourg speech Thursday before the European Parliament. 

What are Canada’s options? What are Europe’s options as both the US and Russia are eyeing the Arctic? How closer can they really get when already ten EU nations – including France and Italy – have yet to ratify the CETA free trade agreement that is provisionally in effect with Ottawa?

The French – who have their own challenges with the far-right favourite to win next May’s presidential elections – will conclude this Canadian cycle when Emmanuel Macron hosts Carney in the tiny North Atlantic overseas territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York, we ask: will Europeans take on the United States head-on like Canada? Or will they massage relations with the world's biggest superpower?

 

Produced by François Picard, Théophile Vareille, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

First, there was US President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to strike Iran. Then, came the quagmire of a war without an exit strategy. Now, six months later, with access to the Strait of Hormuz all but shut, global shipping has taken another hit the other end of the Arabian Peninsula. Iran-backed Houthis are threatening access to the Red Sea. 

Whereas Washington jumped at Israel’s request to take out Iran’s Supreme Leader in February, he is reluctant to go all in for his other ally in the region. In this edition FRANCE 24’s François Picard asks: why the sudden escalation between the Saudis and the Houthis, what to make of an Iraqi Shia militia hitting the kingdom’s main East-West pipeline and what who can ease our newfound energy insecurity and a Gulf region. 

 

Produced by François Picard, Antonia Cimini, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.