The Debate

Moscow has opened a new front with Ukraine after taking several villages near Kharkiv. Russia’s spring offensive takes form as President Vladimir Putin replaces defence minister Sergei Shoigu with another Kremlin loyalist – Andrei Belousov, the deputy prime minister in charge of the economy.

In a nation that has fully embraced the transition to a war economy, what does this reshuffle mean as Putin embarks on his fifth term?

And what are the prospects for an outmanned and outgunned Ukraine that can neither afford to keep fighting nor to embrace peace on Putin’s terms for the sake of its own survival.

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Guillaume Gougeon and Imen Mellaz.

After the massive party in Marseille to welcome the arrival of the Olympic flame, it's time to turn our gaze north for what's also billed as another "it's a small world after all" feelgood celebration. Malmö, Sweden is host of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, that heart-shaped ode to kitsch where pop contestants do battle with tremolos, glitter and kicks. But just as politics bleeds into sports, it bleeds into music. 

Security is tight around the venue in southern Sweden, amid calls by some to bar Israel's contestant. And while the ban on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine two years ago was for the most part consensual, this call is tearing apart aficionados.

It’s not just controversial when the voting is done by country. When do rock anthems become national anthems? Just how important is music for propaganda and resistance? And are today's artists any more or less voices for activism than their predecessors?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown. 

Paris hosts the Olympic Games this summer, but it's in a city founded by the ancient Greeks that it all begins. The Olympic flame has arrived in the Mediterranean port of Marseille, the start of a long journey to the July 26 opening ceremony. What's it all about? After all, the torch relay hasn't always been part of the pageantry. Organisers insist it's not political, but also boast of the values they purvey. 

What are those values? Does it resonate, for instance, when the leader of the last host nation China and the next host nation France call for an Olympic truce during the Games?

What does a global spectacle like this one mean post-pandemic and in the midst of so many conflicts and fractures across the planet? To what extent will Paris 2024 mirror the triumphs and challenges of our present day?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown.

 

They say it's darkest before the dawn. Let's hope that's true, because Gaza's definitely in the dark this Tuesday. Israeli tanks are cutting off the Egyptian border crossing in the southernmost city of Rafah as the coalition war cabinet rejects what Hamas brands as acceptance of a truce deal, instead reading it as an underwhelming counteroffer. Is this the start of the all-out ground offensive that US mediators, among others, fear will lead to a new level of humanitarian disaster?

It’s been an up-and-down 24 hours for Gaza residents, who initially thought a first ceasefire since November was finally at hand, thus sparing Rafah. But perhaps it's when it all comes to a head that the real bargaining begins. 

What do Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar really want? What's in their interest at this point? And how much pressure can the outside world bring to end a nightmare that’s exactly seven months old and counting?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown.

Can you still send strong messages when you've rolled out the red carpet and chilled the champagne for a state dinner? China's Xi Jinping is being feted in the French capital for his first visit to Europe since 2019, despite trade tensions, spy scandals and insistence that he isolate Vladimir Putin over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. How much has changed since one year ago, when Emmanuel Macron was accused of lax messaging on human rights and Taiwan when he travelled to Beijing?

The last time that Macron hosted Xi, he invited then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel to join the talks alongside the European Commission president. This time, Ursula von der Leyen is in Paris, but not Olaf Scholz. We ask why and whether that strengthens or weakens the bargaining position of France and the EU.

There are also the messages that Xi wants to convey, particularly with his itinerary: after France, the Chinese president travels to Hungary, whose lenient stance towards Beijing is being rewarded with an electric vehicle factory; and Serbia, for the 25th anniversary of NATO's mistaken bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the war in Kosovo. Is it all part of the hard bargaining or a signal that China is ready to take on all comers?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown.

How did an argument in Khartoum between two rival generals drag Sudan into civil war and push it to the brink of a repeat of the Darfur genocide of two decades ago? It has not happened yet, but the stage is certainly set in El Fasher, the west's only city still in the hands of junta leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan but besieged by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – aka Hemedti.

Hemedti's RSF is the offshoot of the Arab Janjaweed militias that two decades ago slaughtered upwards of 200,000 Masalit, Fur and Zaghawa civilians. After 2005, there were mea culpas and pledges to never again to allow a repeat of the 21st century’s first genocide.

Fast forward to 2024 and the international community has a chance to do just that. And yet, its gaze is elsewhere.

Why? And why, after a year of fighting, is there no end in sight for the people of Sudan?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown. 

Watch moreSudan, a forgotten crisis the world must pay attention to

Concerns over "too much screen time" for youngsters are nothing new. In pre-internet days, young people sometimes saw their TV viewing curtailed as a punishment. But it's now been three decades since mobile phones went mainstream, and nearly two since the advent of the tablet and the smartphone. Many teachers and psychiatrists link long hours of scrolling and exposure to violent and pornographic images, as well as cyberbullying, anxiety and sleep deprivation among a generation whose attention span has shrunk.

We ask about a panel that has just submitted recommendations to France's president, starting with a ban on smartphones for under-13s. What's the right measure in our connected world? What responsibility for parents, teachers and the tech giants whose entire business model rests on keeping us on our screens as long as possible? Can curbs really be enforced? 

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown. 

For the first time since November, could there finally be a respite in Gaza? As warring parties and negotatiors shuttle through Cairo, we try to see through the smokescreens and the mixed messages if the stars are truly aligning. Beyond a swap of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, it's tough at face value to comprehend indirect talks between two sides whose official line is the elimination of the other. The US Secretary of State has hinted at a grand bargain from which a truce graduates into a full-blown rewrite of 75 years of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

The first step would be a ceasefire. And as interested third parties like the US and Egypt feel the pressure over a war that's in its seventh month, what do they need to do to help get a deal over the line?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Guillaume Gougeon and Imen Mellaz.

The expression went viral in the 1960s: generation gap. Those in power had fought in World War II and were shocked to see college students in the US rebel against the call to serve their country and go to war. How much has the current movement on college campuses exposed a new generation gap? Will the consequences be as far-reaching? For the first time since the Vietnam War, Columbia University brought in police to break up a pro-Palestinian encampment, sparking further sit-in protests across the US.

We ask about the students' calls for a ceasefire and for some, a boycott of Israel along the lines of the 1980s movement to divest from apartheid-era South Africa. Will a seemingly endless war in Gaza tear the American left apart, the way the Vietnam War did?

And what about this side of the Atlantic? Students here, too, are divided. Many also perceive Israel not as David but as Goliath. How should the legitimate fears felt by both Jews and Muslims that the eruption in the Middle East will lead to unbridled intolerance going mainstream be addressed? 

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Imen Mellaz.

In 2017, France’s new president went to Paris's Sorbonne University to defend Europe’s strategic autonomy. Since then, there's been Covid and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Now, ahead of June's EU elections, Emmanuel Macron was back with an update. 

"Everything that is strategic in our world, we have delegated. Our energy, to Russia; Our security – for several of our partners; not France, but several others – to the United States. And other critical interests, also, to China. We must take them back. This is what strategic autonomy is about," he declared.

So how has Europe met those challenges so far? What to make of Macron's call for an acceleration of a common defence and industrial policy and his claim that energy transition is compatible with growth and the polls? After all, this was a campaign speech, what with Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally ahead with nearly one-third of voter intentions, double those of Macron’s centrists.

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown.