The Debate

King Charles to the rescue? The president of the United States was wined and dined with all the pomp and circumstance of a state visit to Windsor Castle. We asked: honour guards, fighter jet flyovers, and celebrity royals – was it all part of a charm offensive aimed at wooing Donald Trump, whose worldview appears more aligned with far-right figure Nigel Farage than with Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer?

For over a century, the so-called "special relationship" between the UK and US has often felt like a mismatch. But as Starmer prepares to sign major deals on technology, defence, and nuclear cooperation, just how mismatched is it today?

Trump’s stance on global affairs – appeasement of Russia over Ukraine, unwavering support for Israel’s destruction of Gaza, and his aggressive approach to tariffs and trade – has pushed the UK to quietly edge closer to Europe. Yet in practice, is Britain becoming more – not less –dependent on the United States?

Produced by Antonia Cimini, Aurore Laborie, Ilayda Habip and Charles Wente.

First came October 7, 2023 and the bloodiest day of terror in Israel's history. Then came retribution. Since then, it has never stopped. Gaza is entering a new circle of hell with Israeli tanks entering the centre of its capital city and the apparent launch of a ground offensive.

We ask why the spectacle is allowed to unfold. The consequences for Palestinians are all too obvious, but what about for Israelis? Does the flattening of Gaza kill off sympathy for a state founded in large part by survivors of the Holocaust?

Here in Europe, the dark legacy of World War II and collaboration with the Nazis is a fading memory for the younger generation; the one that's the most vocal in calling out what it sees in Gaza. And after Sunday's disruption of the finale of the Tour of Spain cycling race, we ask what's next, starting with the annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in a week's time. 

Produced by Antonia Cimini, Aurore Laborie, Ilayda Habip and Charles Wente.

It seems that summoning ambassadors for a scolding somehow won't be enough. After last week's unprecedented wave of Russian drones that landed in Poland, it's now Romania's turn to scramble fighter jets and call in the Kremlin's envoy.

As Russia fills Ukraine's skies with ever-increasing unmanned devices, we asked why and whether Vladimir Putin is indeed testing frontline NATO states, who until now thought that the US had their backs.

The US president can't bring himself to categorically condemn Russian aggression, even after a phone call with a new Polish counterpart who's a conservative fellow traveller.

Speaking of fellow travellers, there’s the support of Vice President JD Vance for a German far right that again made historic inroads in Sunday's regional elections and the likeminded Elon Musk who spoke by video link to London’s largest far-right rally in decades.

Caught between Russia's offensive and the illiberal winds blowing from across the Atlantic, what can cash-strapped Europeans do on their own to defend their own continent?

Produced by Aurore Laborie, Henri Pierre Mafulu and Charles Wente.

If Charlie Kirk wasn't previously a household name internationally, he is now. Across the United States, flags are at half mast on government buildings after an assassination that bears the markings of a professional hit job. It was US President Donald Trump himself who broke news of the death of the 31-year-old MAGA influencer, on Truth Social.

We ask about the circumstances of the shooting at a university campus talk in Utah, measure the impact – Kirk's powerful messaging could made his masculinist, anti-woke, nationalist views seem hip and cool to young people – and the backlash in a nation where social media-fuelled vitriol has led to these real-life shootings, like the one targeting Trump himself.

Read moreTrump urges peace after Charlie Kirk killing as manhunt continues

The US president has evoked wartime powers to militarise his response to immigration and crime. What kind of response to expect to the killing of a figure from the front lines of America's culture wars?

It's the first day on the job for the new French prime minister, and the long-announced date for a Yellow Vests-style day of protest against austerity. Sébastien Lecornu is taking over from predecessor François Bayrou, who also passed on the bigger political hot potato – a budget that still needs passing. Bayrou was undone by an opposition-led parliament.  

The 39-year old Sébastien Lecornu is unknown to many, yet he's been in every government since Emmanuel Macron's second month in office back in 2017. Wednesday's Yellow Vests-inspired "Block everything" movement started on social media, adopted by the hard left, and is part of the pushback against further cuts to the welfare state in a nation still brooding over pension reform, the scrapping of the wealth tax and –more broadly – the disconnect between elites and the disenfranchised.

Read moreCan Macron’s quiet power broker Sébastien Lecornu navigate France’s fractured politics as PM?

Will naming a loyalist further stoke resentment against the term-limited Macron? Or can his quiet man succeed where previous heads of government have failed in striking deals with a hostile parliament? Lecornu may promise a new approach, but can Macron himself change, and resist the temptation to override eventual compromises?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rachael Griffiths and Juliette Brown.

In 2017, he blew up the system. Now, can he keep it together? France's Emmanuel Macron had never run for public office before becoming president. And for a while, he seemed exempt from the crude reality of political horse-trading. Yet now, the same Macron who reigned supreme when he smashed the big tent centre-left and centre-right parties eight years ago is running out of road in his second term, with his baffling decision last year to dissolve parliament backfiring miserably and an even stronger opposition ousting the 47-year-old president's second prime minister in under a year on Monday.

Macron had hoped that with Michel Barnier and then François Bayrou, he could stay in his comfort zone with a coalition that runs from traditional conservatives to the centre. But Monday’s vote at the National Assembly wasn’t even close. That vote was triggered to anticipate the bruising austerity budget battle that's still to come, not to mention this Wednesday’s Yellow Vests-inspired day of protest. 

Beyond the choice of Bayrou's successor – now confirmed as outgoing defence minister Sébastien Lecornu – is it about Macron himself, the leader who promised Jupiter-like strength from on high and who now has to make concessions, or a democracy that's no longer so unique on a continent rife with populist pressures and fragmented political forces?

Produced by Theophile Vareille, Elisa Amiri, Juliette Brown.

French MPs voted to topple the government of Prime Minister François Bayrou on Monday after the PM surprised even his own allies by calling a confidence vote to resolve a months-long deadlock over his austerity budget. Bayrou will tender his resignation on Tuesday morning, plunging France into fresh political turmoil.

Security guarantees for Ukraine have been agreed at the Paris meeting of the "coalition of the willing" to help Ukraine in its existential fight against Vladimir Putin's Russia. But how will Moscow respond?

French President Emmanuel Macron said "we want fair, long-term peace" as he confirmed the announcement alongside Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky. The latter, at war since Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, thanked the coalition partners for their backing and called for a swift and just end to the war.

Ukraine's independence remains at stake, and protecting that going forward is the aim. No one thinks that Putin's quasi-imperial and wholly illegal ambition to capture the whole of Ukraine will suddenly stop if peace is reached.

The guarantees, Macron said, include land, air and sea security and coalition members are ready to send troops if there is a peace deal to defend. If not, then it's a sanctions package against Moscow.

The extent of the role of Donald Trump's America is yet to be revealed. A video call was held with the mercurial US president after the coalition's meeting. 

Produced by Mark Owen, Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

China has staged an impressive display of its military might to mark its Victory Day, a commemoration of the end of World War II, which Beijing couches as its defeat of Japanese forces and – crucially – fascism.

Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, as head of the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army, spending on arms has more than doubled – some say quadrupled.

And there was a clear message to the rest of the world in the display of weapons paraded through Tiananmen Square.

Produced by Mark Owen, Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

As Europe goes back to school, it already had plenty on its plate. Now – on top of inflation, extreme weather, the AI race, Russian threats and a no-longer-so-friendly United States, it's got a new worry: France.

After last year's baffling dissolution that resulted in a hung parliament, the French prime minister's now got six days to convince the opposition parties that hold his fate in their hands that he was right to preempt a raucous showdown over his austerity budget and call a vote of confidence next Monday. Like with Emmanuel Macron a year ago, François Bayrou didn’t have to put his neck on the line. But he did.

And if all goes to script next Monday, the centrist 74-year-old mainstay of French politics will have to make way for Macron's fifth prime minister since his re-election in 2022. Why the seemingly self-inflicted crisis? What are the president's options? The far left and far right want the term-limited Macron to resign. Is it about the man or the system?

Next week’s vote is only the start of it. Trade unions have latched onto a Yellow Vests-style day of action called for September 10. Where it will lead? It's hard to say, in a nation where critics quip that citizens prefer revolution to reform. We ask about a country that fared better than most during Covid but never shut the tap after on stimulus spending. Rising borrowing costs on French debt show that for markets and jittery neighbours, it's time to pay the piper.

Produced by François Picard, Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.