The Debate

Is it about justice or politics? In the same breath, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court requested arrest warrants against both Israel's Binyamin Netanyahu and Hamas's Yahya Sinwar.

We ask about the alleged war crimes, the measure of the request and the sharp reactions. The US president has branded "outrageous" the accusations against Prime Minister Netanyahu and his defence chief Yoav Gallant, with the likes of the UK, Italy and Germany bemoaning "the inaccurate impression of an equivalence" between both sides.

France is among those that leave the matter to the judges of the ICC, an international court with jurisdiction in 124 nations. The ICC has indicted sitting leaders before, but never a democratically elected one.

What impact will the move have on Israel's reputation and on its politics? And will these charges alleviate the suffering in Gaza?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Imen Mellaz.

Iran's regime just lost a safe pair of hands. Yes, another hardliner is sure to replace Ebrahim Raisi – known to detractors as the butcher of Tehran for the thousands of dissidents he sent to the gallows as a state prosecutor. But the president's sudden death in a helicopter crash may still change the equation – not so much for a presidential election slated by the constitution to be held in 50 days' time, but in the behind-the-scenes jockeying to pick a successor to Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader who is 85 years old and frail. Raisi – himself a cleric – had been tipped as a possible replacement.

We ask about the crash and the challenges ahead for Iran.

Then there are the country's 88 million citizens. Will they get involved? Since Raisi was elected in 2021, the regime has stared down the massive "women, life, freedom" protests but lost a great measure of its legitimacy. With pragmatists and moderates sidelined, recent legislative elections were marked by record low turnout. Will Iran's decision makers open the door to dissenting views or double down?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Imen Mellaz.

A black swan moment. The assassination attempt of populist Slovak leader Robert Fico has shocked both Slovaks and Europeans. But in hindsight it is easy to point to security lapses and a climate of verbal violence in a country that finds itself increasingly polarised. Our guests take a look.

When British member of parliament Jo Cox was assassinated by a deranged constituent during the 2016 Brexit campaign, that too seemed like a black swan moment. Are these isolated cases or part of a broader trend?

And who stands to benefit from these heinous crimes?

Slovakia’s government has asked senior leaders in its own ranks to tone down accusations that the opposition and the media are to blame. More broadly, as the whole continent gets set to vote in the EU elections, how much fear and loathing can we expect to see on this campaign trail?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Guillaume Gougeon and Imen Mellaz.

Another showdown in the country that launched the so-called coloured revolutions. Georgia’s parliament has shrugged off some of the biggest protests in its post-Soviet history by approving a “foreign agents” bill that mirrors legislation in neighbouring Russia. The opposition argues it is the way for the government to curb media freedom and dissent in a country which only recently graduated to EU candidate status.

Is Tbilisi returning to Russia’s orbit? Or did that already happen when oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgia Dream party won a supermajority back in 2020? That supermajority is now slated to override a presidential veto on what the opposition calls the “Russian law”. Then what? 

Ahead of elections later this year, we take a look at what lessons other former Soviet states, like Armenia, Kazakhstan and of course Ukraine - which just 10 years ago was still evenly split between pro-Moscow and pro-EU citizens – can draw from the developments.

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Guillaume Gougeon and Imen Mellaz. 

It’s that place where once a year, high art and hustlers rub elbows, a place for icon worshipers and insurgents, old legends and young upstarts…

Welcome to the French Riviera resort of Cannes and the 77th film festival that bears its name… the first one since French actress and director Judith Godrèche went back on her personal story – her filmmaker's mistress at age 14 – and sparked a MeToo reckoning in French cinema.
 

Cannes’ not always been ahead of the curve. This year though, it’s premiering Godrèche’s short film about sexual violence and organizers picked as jury president Greta Gerwig, director of the smash feminist hit Barbie. How in synch with the times can a festival… and an industry be?

We’ll raise the curtain on a Cannes that’s always in search of the right balance between the socially relevant and good old fashion star power… a festival that will showcase the new film by Mohammad Rasoulof who had to flee Iran to present his new feature and what may be the last hurrah at 85 for two-time Golden Palm winner Francis Ford Coppola. What will this year’s festival say about the state of movies and the state of our world?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Guillaume Gougeon and Imen Mellaz. 

Moscow has opened a new front with Ukraine after taking several villages near Kharkiv. Russia’s spring offensive takes form as President Vladimir Putin replaces defence minister Sergei Shoigu with another Kremlin loyalist – Andrei Belousov, the deputy prime minister in charge of the economy.

In a nation that has fully embraced the transition to a war economy, what does this reshuffle mean as Putin embarks on his fifth term?

And what are the prospects for an outmanned and outgunned Ukraine that can neither afford to keep fighting nor to embrace peace on Putin’s terms for the sake of its own survival.

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Guillaume Gougeon and Imen Mellaz.

After the massive party in Marseille to welcome the arrival of the Olympic flame, it's time to turn our gaze north for what's also billed as another "it's a small world after all" feelgood celebration. Malmö, Sweden is host of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, that heart-shaped ode to kitsch where pop contestants do battle with tremolos, glitter and kicks. But just as politics bleeds into sports, it bleeds into music. 

Security is tight around the venue in southern Sweden, amid calls by some to bar Israel's contestant. And while the ban on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine two years ago was for the most part consensual, this call is tearing apart aficionados.

It’s not just controversial when the voting is done by country. When do rock anthems become national anthems? Just how important is music for propaganda and resistance? And are today's artists any more or less voices for activism than their predecessors?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown. 

Paris hosts the Olympic Games this summer, but it's in a city founded by the ancient Greeks that it all begins. The Olympic flame has arrived in the Mediterranean port of Marseille, the start of a long journey to the July 26 opening ceremony. What's it all about? After all, the torch relay hasn't always been part of the pageantry. Organisers insist it's not political, but also boast of the values they purvey. 

What are those values? Does it resonate, for instance, when the leader of the last host nation China and the next host nation France call for an Olympic truce during the Games?

What does a global spectacle like this one mean post-pandemic and in the midst of so many conflicts and fractures across the planet? To what extent will Paris 2024 mirror the triumphs and challenges of our present day?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown.

 

They say it's darkest before the dawn. Let's hope that's true, because Gaza's definitely in the dark this Tuesday. Israeli tanks are cutting off the Egyptian border crossing in the southernmost city of Rafah as the coalition war cabinet rejects what Hamas brands as acceptance of a truce deal, instead reading it as an underwhelming counteroffer. Is this the start of the all-out ground offensive that US mediators, among others, fear will lead to a new level of humanitarian disaster?

It’s been an up-and-down 24 hours for Gaza residents, who initially thought a first ceasefire since November was finally at hand, thus sparing Rafah. But perhaps it's when it all comes to a head that the real bargaining begins. 

What do Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar really want? What's in their interest at this point? And how much pressure can the outside world bring to end a nightmare that’s exactly seven months old and counting?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown.

Can you still send strong messages when you've rolled out the red carpet and chilled the champagne for a state dinner? China's Xi Jinping is being feted in the French capital for his first visit to Europe since 2019, despite trade tensions, spy scandals and insistence that he isolate Vladimir Putin over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. How much has changed since one year ago, when Emmanuel Macron was accused of lax messaging on human rights and Taiwan when he travelled to Beijing?

The last time that Macron hosted Xi, he invited then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel to join the talks alongside the European Commission president. This time, Ursula von der Leyen is in Paris, but not Olaf Scholz. We ask why and whether that strengthens or weakens the bargaining position of France and the EU.

There are also the messages that Xi wants to convey, particularly with his itinerary: after France, the Chinese president travels to Hungary, whose lenient stance towards Beijing is being rewarded with an electric vehicle factory; and Serbia, for the 25th anniversary of NATO's mistaken bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the war in Kosovo. Is it all part of the hard bargaining or a signal that China is ready to take on all comers?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown.