The Debate

How to truly reconcile a nation with itself? Perhaps a first step is to examine the path that was taken. Lebanon is marking 50 years since the first shots of a civil war fuelled by sea change in the wider region. Today, with Assad out in Syria, Iran on the back foot and Israel emboldened, we ask about the consequences of what looks like another sea change moment. What are the lessons from the past?

Remember, 1975 was before the Iranian Revolution and the rise of the Tehran-backed Hezbollah movement. We look back and ask why so many actors then are still players today, a half-century later. What's changed? What's the same?

And how does the next generation overcome those sectarian tensions that flare up again regularly? Can this 50-year funk be reversed? The protesters of 2019 certainly thought so.

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

The Netherlands is following the UK in launching initiatives to show Netflix's four-part series "Adolescence" in middle schools. Meanwhile, France's education ministry ponders tighter controls on teens exposed to hate speech and online porn. We ask about a fiction inspired by real-life cases of boys who went so far as to murder girls.

Are they tragic outliers or indicative of a genuine trend? A decade ago, this show was grappling with the issue of parents shocked to discover that their teens had self-radicalised online in their bedrooms. Back then, we were talking about jihadism. Today, it's about fears that men are somehow being cancelled or replaced, an allegation amplified by the likes of influencer Andrew Tate, who was recently sprung from a Romanian jail after alleged pressure from the Trump administration.

Have we gone from bro culture to a war of the sexes; a war against women that starts at a young age? And what to do about it?

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.

"It’s all the president's decision," says his treasury secretary. World trade again hangs on the whims of one man, argues François Picard's panel after Donald Trump reversed course with a 90-day moratorium on most reciprocal tariffs, but increased import duties on China to 125 percent. Will it be enough to ease markets in the long run? After all, 10 percent universal tariffs on the rest of the world still apply. Who, between China and the United States, has the stamina to win this fight between the world's top manufacturer and its number one customer?

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.

France's president is jetting from Cairo to the Sinai, near the border with Gaza, to show that Europe has not forgotten the plight of Palestinians who are back under daily bombardment since the collapse of last month's ceasefire with Israel. But was there perhaps a more subtle message for Benjamin Netanyahu?

The visit is taking place the same day that Israel's Supreme Court rules whether the prime minister unfairly wants to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet intelligence service. The service just happened to have launched a probe into two of Netanyahu's media advisors allegedly being on the take from Qatar. Are the pair behind a disinformation campaign against Egypt, with false claims of a troop buildup at the Gaza border? Either way, France's president stands by Egypt.

Just 24 hours ago, we would have been asking why Netanyahu should care what Macron thinks, as long as Donald Trump has his back. But that was before an awkward visit by Netanyahu to the White House late on Monday. Did the US president catch his guest off guard when he announced the reopening of talks with Iran or praised Turkey? And what about that phone call Trump had before meeting Netanyahu with a certain Emmanuel Macron?

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Ilayda Habip and Oihana Almandoz.

Asian and European markets are nosediving for a third straight day as Donald Trump doubles down on tariffs. Weighing further on investors, China is the first to pull the trigger on reciprocal tariffs. For the Europeans, is it best to wait and let the markets temper Trump's zeal for trade barriers? Or does retribution require nerves of steel?

Last week, France and Germany called on the European Union to hit the US where it hurts: its tech sector.

But just as the Covid pandemic made Europe realise how overdependent it is on Chinese manufactured goods and medicines, is the Old Continent just now waking up to the reality that in an increasingly demonetised world, the US controls both the software and the financing of our daily transactions? 

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Ilayda Habip and Oihana Almandoz.

Will global trade ever be the same? In the name of "unrelented economic warfare" allegedly waged by friend and foe alike against the United States, Donald Trump is unveiling a dizzying list: worldwide tariffs, targeted tariffs, retaliatory tariffs, carve-outs, exceptions, all leading to confusion. Trump also signed an executive order ending duty-free shipments of small-value packages from mainland China and Hong Kong; a major blow to e-commerce companies.

Will this mark the end of the consumer-driven model that’s gone into overdrive since Beijing joined the World Trade Organization in 2000? Wither the cheap goods that flood the four corners of the Earth?

The Chinese, like the Europeans, are mapping their response as rivals renew dialogue. In the case of China, it's also testing Washington’s resolve, as evidenced by bigger-than-ever military drills around Taiwan. Taiwan is also the target of hefty Trump tariffs.

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

Donald Trump is billing April 2 as "Liberation Day", when the United States sheds the shackles of unfair competition thanks to worldwide tariffs. We test the veracity of the US president’s worldview and ask: how much is theatrics that will play well in constituencies where manufacturing jobs have disappeared? How much is a genuine sense of grievance? Or has the world’s top superpower simply grown tired of playing guarantor of global free trade? Otherwise, why test the rules of globalisation when you already dominate global tech and financial services? In the short term, the United States can inflict a lot of pain. After all, it controls the world’s most trusted currency, the almighty US dollar. Is that trust gone and gone for good? Even if it's all bargaining tactics and Trump ultimately rolls back these tariffs?

Read moreLive: Trump tariffs fuel global trade war as EU, China vow retaliation

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.

There was a sea of humanity out in the streets last Saturday to protest the jailing of Turkey's popular presidential contender Ekrem Imamoglu, but now the country's on a week-long post-Ramadan break. Will it be long enough to dull the momentum of Turkey's biggest mass movement in more than a decade?

For now, the mayor of Istanbul's centre-left CHP party is calling for weekly Wednesday rallies and consumer boycotts to keep up the pressure, this despite a widening crackdown. What makes this movement different to all the others that have tried and failed to unseat a leader of 22 years, who despite inflation and incumbent fatigue retains a solid base?

Going forward, is time on Recep Tayyip Erdogan's side? The Turkish president needs early elections if he's to change the constitution and lift term limits before 2028. And in a nation where judges and civil servants seem to fall in line when needed, elections remain the one process that Erdogan can't seem to control. 

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.

Can justice be truly blind? Truly impartial and impervious to biases, pressures and power plays? Can citizens in this day and age agree to accept it when a court bars a presidential frontrunner from contesting the next election? The party of the French far right's Marine Le Pen calls it "an execution of democracy," after a ruling found nine far-right lawmakers guilty of running a "system" that funnelled €2.9 million from the European Parliament to National Rally insiders.

Injustice is in the eye of the beholder: take Romania and Turkey, where frontrunners have also been recently barred under very different circumstances. Whenever a politician is convicted, it's a stress test for institutions and the rule of law. In the case of Le Pen, she's got the backing of a growing media echo chamber. How far will crying foul carry the far right in France?

Donald Trump never went to trial for allegedly trying to forcibly overturn his 2020 election defeat. With the US president now testing constitutional limits in his country, will the illiberal winds across the Atlantic further stoke sympathy for Le Pen, or spook citizens who may look at the turmoil in Washington and prefer France's imperfect republic as it is?

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.

Read moreLe Pen's French presidential hopes in jeopardy as election ban upends 2027 race

If Europeans didn't get the memo in Munich, when JD Vance preferred a meeting with the pro-Putin far-right leader Alice Weidel to one with Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz, then they're cordially invited to read what he says in private about an Old Continent populated by "freeloaders". If Signalgate's still not enough, then how about a sitting US vice president announcing an uninvited visit to Greenland? A "very aggressive" posture, says Denmark's prime minister. But what can Mette Frederiksen do when her country buys most of its military hardware from the US and hosts a US Air Force base in Greenland?

The Danish leader is representing one of over 30 NATO countries present in Paris for a "coalition of the willing" summit on Ukraine. But those 32 nations do not include the United States.

Co-hosts France and the UK know they can't deploy peacekeepers over the heads of a reluctant Trump administration.

So what's the workaround? And with Washington now repeating what sounds like Kremlin talking points, how grave a danger is there not just for Ukraine, but for all of Europe? Is the EU overreacting when it advises its citizens to stockpile three days of food and essentials just in case?