The Debate

It's a done deal for some; close but not quite over the line for others. After so many false starts since the last ceasefire 14 months ago, a deal finally appears at hand for the guns to go silent in the Gaza Strip.

Could the difference be the imminent return of Donald Trump? His return comes in the wake of the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and the pummelling of Iran proxy Hezbollah at the hands of Israel. What leverage is left for Hamas? And who to pick up the pieces of a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and a territory that is largely destroyed?

A truce would also prove a moment of truth for Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu. Do his personal fortunes depend on prolonging the war, or is this a window of opportunity to pivot away from the far right and prolong the political shelf life of Israel's longest-serving leader?

Force majeure is defined as an event that's above and beyond our control. That expression is borrowed by insurers from the French to describe what may otherwise be described as an act of God. Los Angeles's devastating wildfires certainly qualify as force majeure: the explosive cocktail of prolonged drought, low humidity and hurricane-force winds together sparking an unprecedented disaster. But is it all down to Mother Nature?

What does it take to prevent and put out wildfires in times of global warming? There is what insurers should cover in earthquake, mudslide and fire-prone Southern California, and what authorities should do – from building codes and safety norms, to how much tax should be raised to fund rescue services.

The well-to-do in the posh Pacific Palisades neighborhood will almost certainly land on their feet. Some can even pay for private firefighters. But what about the rest of the population?

More broadly, are we ready for the new normal?

It's not just Elon Musk. Be they cabinet picks, ambassadors or advisers, Donald Trump’s roster of nominees is stacked with a record number of billionaires. What does that say about the times we live in? And if Trump's first stint as US president is anything to go by, it's safe to predict more deregulation and tax cuts that will serve his team nicely. But does success in making money imply success in serving the common good?

Four years ago, captains of industry and tech titans were distancing themselves from Trump's brand of politics after the storming of the Capitol that attempted to stop the January 6 certification of his defeat.

Last week, Facebook's boss Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was ditching US-based fact-checkers on his platforms. Will kissing the ring be good for Meta and will the rest of the world feel the impact of what is happening across the Atlantic?

At a time when the world needs to come together on issues of environmental norms and artificial intelligence, what response will there be if things get adversarial?

Is it more than the final sendoff for a long-gone one-term president? With Jimmy Carter's passing, Washington is marking two legacies: that of a peanut farmer-turned-governor of a southern state whose rise to power embodied a backlash after the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal; and that of a leader voted out of the White House after a hostage and energy crisis but whose second act in life made him a moral authority on issues such as peacebuilding, election monitoring and affordable housing. 

Carter's funeral comes in the final days before another one-term president leaves office. And just as Carter's loss begat the Reagan years and a backlash against his vision of the social contract between citizens and their government, what does the coming presidency mean at this moment, both for the US and for the world?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Ilayda Habip. 

Imagine if Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping threatened a hostile takeover of Greenland or the Panama Canal. So what about the president-elect of the United States? Is Donald Trump serious? Trump's growing fixation comes two weeks ahead of Inauguration Day. He even sent his son to Greenland, much to the dismay of Denmark. That EU member has ruled Greenland for two centuries. Today it needs US-led NATO support to stare down the more pressing threat of the Russians in the Baltic Sea.

Trump has goaded other allies, again suggesting a merger with Canada on the day when his liberal opposite to the north, Justin Trudeau, announced his resignation. Meanwhile, Trump vexed his neighbour to the south by saying he wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. How do the Trudeaus of this world react?

Beyond performative politics, what is it all about? Is the man who wants a Ukraine deal on Day One an isolationist or an imperialist at heart? What sets him apart from his Russian and Chinese counterparts?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Ilayda Habip. 

It's been 10 years since the attack on a very French institution: the targeting of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and the murder of 12 people, including five cartoonists and two police officers. That attack would launch a wave of jihadist terror on French soil and spark a slogan that would go global. 

In 2025, what does it mean to post "Je suis Charlie" - I am Charlie? How has that slogan evolved since that massive demonstration in Paris, four days after the Charlie Hebdo attack, where some 40 world leaders attended and where in a very rare moment of national unity, crowds even cheered the police?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Ilayd Habip. 

Elon Musk really doesn't like British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. This Monday saw Starmer hit back at Musk after days of silence, saying the world's richest man was spreading "lies and misinformation" with his attacks on the British leader and one of his ministers on X. More broadly, what is Europe to do about X owner Musk's trolling of sitting governments and support for the far right?

Elon Musk is no longer just the billionaire boss of Tesla and SpaceX. He has been tapped for what is billed as a cabinet position by Donald Trump. He's no longer a private citizen and so it is all the more surprising that he's using his social medium X to furiously slam sitting governments in Britain and Germany and endorse far-right leaders and tropes.

Do not feed the troll, says the German chancellor. But as Olaf Scholz himself admits, Musk's unique positioning presents new challenges. Is the Trump whisperer inciting hate? Is it foreign meddling on the part of the incoming US administration? How do European leaders react?

And what do Musk's invectives signal for relations between Washington and Europe after Inauguration Day on January 20?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Ilayda Habip. 

Guilty verdicts for all. A court in southern France has sentenced Dominique Pelicot along with the 50 co-defendants he invited over the internet into the family home to rape his drugged wife. The 72-year-old pensioner got the maximum 20 years behind bars, but his co-accused received lighter sentences than those demanded by the prosecution.

We ask what the last few months have revealed, first about the courage of ex-wife Gisèle Pelicot who opted to go public. She attended every day of the three-and-a-half month-long trial, saying shame was for her abusers – less than a third of whom expressed remorse in their closing statements. 

Is the verdict a triumph for victims the world over? Or does it challenge the presumption that after #MeToo, women's rights can only progress? After all, the evidence was posted online years before police or the victim caught wind of what was playing out in the sleepy Provence village of Mazan. 

Produced by Aline Bottin, Rebecca Gnignati and Ilayda Habip. 

The killing in the heart of Moscow of Vladimir Putin's general in charge of chemical weapons comes on the eve of the Russian president's traditional marathon end-of-year press conference. Putin is so far yet to comment on his country's precipitated drawdown from Syria after the fall of Assad, but he's sure to opine on the death of under-sanctions General Igor Kirillov, what with the arrest of an Uzbek suspect who's confessed to working for Ukraine.

Russia may seem exposed and weak, but time is not on Volodymyr Zelensky's side. The Ukrainian president is making the rounds at NATO headquarters, as the Alliance prepares for the return of a Donald Trump who's talked up a deal to end the war; an agreement that could redraw national boundaries in Moscow's favour.

Simply put, which is weaker: a Ukraine exhausted by a decade of fighting, or a Russia that's had to pivot to a wartime economy and still ask for Iranian drones and North Korean reinforcements? In the middle, there's Europe, which is divided over how much it’s going to have to invest in assistance and defence spending for what lies ahead.

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri and Ilayda Habip.

Just as the leader of the Islamist-led alliance that toppled Syria's Assad announced he was shedding his wartime alias Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, can Ahmed al-Sharaa's HTS shed its past as the al-Nusra Front, a hardline offshoot of al Qaeda? FRANCE 24's Wassim Nasr was one of just a handful of journalists to interview Sharaa on Monday.

For the president-elect of the United States, it was Turkey that toppled Assad. Donald Trump calls it a "hostile takeover", this as the outgoing Biden administration reportedly sounds the alarm over a potential Turkish invasion of northern Syria to oust US-backed Kurdish militias. Those same militias guard IS group prisoners for the West.

In the middle, Europe is sending dignitaries and diplomats to both Ankara and Damascus. When is the right time for normalisation? How much has the map of the region been redrawn?

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.

Read moreExclusive: Syria’s de facto new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa calls for lifting of sanctions