The Debate

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.

As cardinals from the four corners of the Earth converge on Rome to pick a new pope, we ask whether the faithful want a reformer or a traditionalist. With an increasing share of the planet's 1.4 billion Catholics hailing from the Global South, the choice of a spiritual leader for the world's largest organised religion also constitutes a statement on shared values in a changing world.

Should the next pope ordain women priests, loosen or lift rules on celibacy within the clergy, and extend or halt the outreach to gays, asylum seekers and other outcasts?

After Saturday's public funeral of Francis will come the closed-door dealings of a papal conclave that must weigh spiritual matters and the earthly reality of a church dogged by the exploding time bomb of sex scandals and debt, but whose choice of a leader can prove a powerful voice for bridge-building in a world that desperately needs it.

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

He chartered a change of course for the Catholic Church. The faithful are mourning the passing of Francis, the first pope born outside Europe in more than a millennium. The native of Buenos Aires brought his years of parish work in working-class neighbourhoods to the high halls of the Vatican.

In his 12 years as pontiff, Pope Francis championed the cause of migrants, climate action, civil unions for homosexuals, and talked up reform inside a Church worn down by declining attendance and sex scandals. 

The pope's very last audience on Easter Sunday with JD Vance showcased the struggle between reformers and conservatives, with the US vice president espousing the more traditional line of the American clergy and a less clement reading of scriptures. 

So what next? We ask about succession and the direction of a Catholic Church that's a reflection of a world that seems, once again, at a crossroads.

Produced by Théophile Vareille, Rebecca Gnignati and Ilayda Habip.

Read moreWho are the leading candidates to succeed Pope Francis?

Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's Mr Fix it on Gaza, Ukraine and now Iran, is in Paris alongside Marco Rubio. Sticklers for protocol would normally insist that the US Secretary of State is the bill topper of this diplomatic tour … but these aren't normal times. Does the 68-year-old former New York real estate mogul hold sway?

And can he do better than career policymakers? When Witkoff picks up on Kremlin talking points, does it mean that Washington has turned on Ukraine for good? Who in Europe can keep Witkoff and Trump onside?

Perhaps French President Emmanuel Macron, or Italy's prime minister? The far right's Giorgia Meloni, who was the only EU leader present at Trump’s inauguration, is back at the White House. Does she soon face a moment of choice on Ukraine, NATO bases in her own country and tariffs?

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

Since Sunday night, France has seen attacks against prison gates, parking lots and even outside a prison guard's home. A hitherto unknown group has claimed responsibility over the social medium Telegram, but it’s still early days for investigators.

We ask whodunnit and about the context, with the right-wing French interior and justice ministers both talking up strongarm tactics to crack down on increasingly violent and emboldened drug gangs, who last year shocked France with the deadly ambush on a prison convoy that enabled the getaway of the since recaptured kingpin known as "The Fly".

So what to make of plans for two French super-prisons for narcos, calls for stiffer sentences for small-time pushers … and even one politician’s call for a US-style Guantanamo in France's North American dependency of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon? Remember, France has some of the most overcrowded prisons in Europe.

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

Donald Trump fired the first shot, but is he ready for this fight? With China's president on the second leg of a regional tour of Vietnam, Malaysia and later Cambodia, it looks like the coalition-building phase of a conflict that's sure to upend global supply chains and rewrite the rules of globalisation as they've stood since Beijing entered the World Trade Organization in 2001.

To win a trade war, you need strength and resilience: not just from the foot soldiers and officers in the trenches of trading floors, factory warehouses and boardrooms, but from the civilians back home. Who of China and the United States has a more resilient population, one with the skills to adapt in a crisis and make the right choices?

And what do third parties say? Do they pick a side? The current model of globalisation depends on free movement of goods, services, people and ideas. Is innovation possible if all the planet's superpowers opt for top-down models where autocrats and oligarchs rule?

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