The Debate

It's snowing in the Alps. Normal weather for February, you say? But cue the sighs of relief of organisers of the 25th Winter Olympics in Milan and the Dolomites resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo. Organisers of the next Games just over the border in the French Alps will take heart. Mother Nature has been fickle in recent years. 

As the US vice president and secretary of state attend the opening ceremonies, there's been plenty of media coverage of the flying in of federal immigration agents, the same who've been grabbing five-year-olds and shooting protesters in Minnesota. The ICE agents are there purely in an advisory role, but it throws the spotlight on the optics of what's ostensibly PM Giorgia Meloni's moment of glory. The only European leader invited to Donald Trump's inauguration a year ago must astutely calibrate between her far-right roots and Europe's interests as she hosts the planet. How will these Olympics play in times of testy transatlantic relations, especially ahead of next summer's World Cup in the United States?

More broadly, what legacy for the 2026 Winter Olympics? Which exploits and which characters will transcend the flag waving? And when the fortnight's over, how will the locals feel about having welcomed the world?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Daniel Whittington, Ilayda Habip, Delphine Liou.

It's moving day at the palace – or should we say moving night. The former prince Andrew exited Windsor Castle under the cover of darkness for his brother's private Sandringham estate in Norfolk. The latest document dump about disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein provided more lewd allegations around the former royal. 

Also out, but not yet stripped of his title, is ultimate Labour Party insider Peter Mandelson, who's under criminal investigation over the leaking of state secrets to an Epstein who had many friends and acquaintances, from the Kremlin to the Clintons, from far-left thinker Noam Chomsky to far-right agitator Steve Bannon. 

Read moreUK ex-US ambassador Peter Mandelson quits House of Lords amid Epstein scandal

Will the current occupant of the White House himself face a reckoning, or simply shrug off the latest allegations with a "see, they all do it" attitude to entitled elites that further fans the flames of populism?

Can the age of massive data dumps meet the promise of transparency, or overwhelm and cloud the issue of accountability for all?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Daniel Whittington, Ilayda Habip, Delphine Liou.

One month after the US captured Nicolas Maduro, is Washington trying its Venezuela template on Iran? Not the part where special forces swoop in for foreign leaders, but rather the part where the regime and its apparatus can stay, so long as Washington gets what it wants. In the case of Iran, maximum pressure and Donald Trump's initial promise to protesters that "help is on the way" seem to be morphing into art of the deal-style nuclear bargaining. 

We ask about this coming Friday's direct talks between the Iranian foreign minister and Trump's New York real estate buddy-cum-special envoy for hot zones Steve Witkoff, whose busy week started with a stop in Israel. How very different times these are from 2015, when the UN could still broker an Iran nuclear deal with all the permanent members of the Security Council. 

Today, despite sanctions, last June's US and Israeli strikes against nuclear facilities and most recently, a ferocious crackdown that's possibly left tens of thousands of Iranians dead, the clerics and the Revolutionary Guards still rule.

With all the upheaval in the region, what next for a traumatised nation and a region in flux?

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

The official line these days out of China is that it's a stable partner "in an uncertain world." So what to make of the bombshell news out of Beijing? Xi Jinping has purged his top general Zhang Youxia, with accusations against the 75-year-old loyalist that range from corruption to leaking nuclear secrets to the US. We ask about the reasons and the timing, what with the move fuelling speculation that an invasion of Taiwan could now come sooner rather than later.

How soon? And with what pushback from a United States that's offering fresh armament for Taipei but not troop support, and from wary neighbours like Japan, where new nationalist Prime Minister Takaichi Sanai has taken a big gamble by calling a snap election for this coming Sunday.

More broadly, does this purge signal a very new chapter in the longest reign of China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Piera Rocco, Delphine Liou.

Making Ukrainians freeze in winter wasn't enough. A Russian strike hit a moving train on Tuesday in the northeastern Kharkiv region, killing six people. As the casualty toll on both sides approaches two million according to an independent study, we weigh the grinding effect of nearly four years of all-out war. 

Read moreAt least six killed in Russian drone attack on passenger train

And what it will take to end it? Ahead of more talks in Abu Dhabi, the United States is adopting a neutral tone in the face of Russia's demand that Ukraine give up the entirety of the eastern region of Donbas. What are Kyiv's options?

And what are Europe’s options? NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is telling allies to "keep on dreaming" if they think they can go it alone without a US-led NATO. With the French president due to speak in the coming weeks on an eventual expansion of France's nuclear umbrella to neighbours, and public opinion across the continent rallying against Donald Trump's hostile takeover bid for Greenland, what does 2026 have in store?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Daniel Whittington, Piera Rocco, Charles Wente.

Now that Iran's internet blackout is over, how many are dead during those 20 days? Nationwide New Year's protests were met with a new measure of ruthlessness. We ask about a death toll that could run into the tens of thousands and what this scale of loss will mean for Iranians both at home and abroad. 

Read more‘As in wartime’: Iranian doctors recount deadly crackdown on protesters

We also revisit Donald Trump's promise at the height of the defiance that help was on the way. What to make of US warships only now arriving in the region? For what aim? Is Washington engaging or disengaging?

Allies like Saudi Arabia want no part of a new bombing campaign and the is US pressuring Iran, while easing away from a presence to support the Kurds in neighbouring Syria. 

More importantly, the regime this time proved its ability to shut down the internet for as long as it takes. Despite the inflation that triggered the protests, has the Islamic Republic – weakened after US-Israeli strikes on its nuclear facilities last summer – emerged stronger?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Daniel Whittington, Piera Rocco, Charles Wente.

It's being described as the mother of all deals. But will the trade agreement struck between the EU and India lead to a wider sense of a happy family? The signing took place with predictable and – some might say – justifiable fanfare. The headline says it's a free trade festival, 20 years in the planning, with clear and present opportunities for business to go back and forth.

We discuss the plan, analyse the opportunities and shine a light on the possible threats. In a world where local production is often bragged about by politicians, does a multilateral accord represent a threat to local businesses? The scenes of French farmers protesting over the European Union deal with South America's Mercosur are still very fresh in our minds.

Produced by Mark Owen, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Piera Rocco, Charles Wente.

Just 17 days after the shooting death of Renée Good, masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis have again shot dead a US citizen, this time 37-year-old Alex Pretti. Again, there's video evidence to contradict official narrative that the victims were acting as domestic terrorists, along with a race to gather evidence before it can be tainted or destroyed, media echo chambers and a US president who watches from on high.

Why these shows of force? Will they discourage dissent or trigger a backlash? Do these hurriedly recruited federal agents armed with military-grade weapons answer to courts and lawmakers, or solely to the US president?

And while passions reach boiling point in specific opposition strongholds, will the rest of the United States continue to go about its business? At what point is the rest of the population affected by the breaking of norms and the pushing of boundaries?

More broadly, has the veneer come off a superpower that claimed a certain exceptionalism in its values; values on which it arguably won the Cold War? What's changed? Is that change permanent?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Piera Rocco, Charles Wente.

While the world waited on what Donald Trump would utter on Greenland on Wednesday, what if we missed the bigger picture? For 73 minutes, the US president, before an audience of traditional transatlantic allies in Davos, hurled invectives and insults while doubling down on what's now official US policy: the assessment that Europe is a continent in civilisational decline; implying that it's overrun by non-Christians and non-Whites. How do Europeans respond?

Even far-right aficionados of MAGA have a hard time with the Greenland grab. Trump's imminent threat has passed for now, but can European leaders establish a common framework for what lies ahead? How do what the Canadian prime minister called "middle powers" coalesce? 

And if the time for flattery and calling Trump "Daddy" truly has passed, then what’s the next step for Europe, for NATO and for nations the world over that still believe in the rules-based order of old?

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Piera Rocco.

From windmills to NATO, Donald Trump let the world have it from the podium of the World Economic Forum. For more than an hour, the president of the United States took on all-comers in his first return to Davos in six years. We ask about the latest threatening language on tariffs and grabbing Greenland, and how an audience of corporate executives feels about a showdown with Europe that's rekindled the threat of a trade war.

How much of it is really about Greenland and, as the US frames it, the broader scramble for the raw materials that will power artificial intelligence?

Flying into the Swiss Alps, Trump is harder on Europeans than on the Chinese and the Russians, whom he again blamed in equal measure with the Ukrainians for so far failing to agree to a settlement.

Ultimately, after a year when they paid even less tax and netted yet more profits, do the corporate titans in the room at Davos care if the US is turning its back on free trade, international law and the independence of its own central bank?

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Juliette Brown.