The Debate

There's an old adage about politics: you campaign in poetry and you govern in prose. Even though Javier Milei, the winner of Sunday’s presidential runoff in Argentina, did not wield a chainsaw like he did on the campaign trail, the free market absolutist did again promise in his acceptance speech to drain the swamp. How radical will he be?

To paraphrase Joe Biden, one is a communist, the other is not. Can these rivals together get a handle on a world of growing conflicts? Amid fears that at any moment, superpowers could find themselves dragged into major wars in Ukraine and now the Middle East with Cold War-like standoffs in the Pacific over Taiwan and the South China Sea, the US and Chinese leaders met for the first time in over a year.

For the Israelis, the root of all evil runs through the alleged tunnels below the Al Shifa Hospital where Israeli soldiers penetrated on Wednesday. But for Palestinians, the hospital now represents a violated sanctuary as it becomes a symbol of civilian suffering.

San Francisco’s a long way from Gaza City or Avdiivka, but as warring sides in the Middle East and Ukraine dig in for the long haul, could an Asia-Pacific summit offer the venue where superpowers dial down the rhetoric of confrontation?

Western leaders spoke as one when they defended Israel's right to defend itself after the bloodiest day in its history, but with the war now in its sixth week, the initial military objective "eradicating Hamas" seems highly improbable without sacrificing civilian lives.

How to get to a ceasefire in Gaza? For Israelis, the answer is clear: Hamas has to release its hostages. For the Palestinian militant group, Israel has to let fuel and basic necessities in. It is up to the belligerents in a war where an estimated one third of buildings in the north of the Strip have either been destroyed or damaged, with even more in Gaza City itself.

Are we seeing a surge in anti-Semitic sentiment, or do we just live in an age where bigots have a bigger bullhorn? Here is what we do know: reported acts of hate against French Jews have soared since the Middle East erupted a month ago.

One month after the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, PM Binyamin Netanyahu talks about the prospect of a long war, a prospect that seems impossible. So what's the alternative?

"We obviously don’t agree on everything." That understatement comes courtesy of the US secretary of state. Now that Antony Blinken's weekend shuttling from Jordan and the West Bank to Iraq and Turkey is over, we can ask: what was it all about?

All eyes are on this Friday’s duelling narratives. Lebanon will see the first speech since October 7 by Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returns to the region, starting in Israel before Jordan and possibly Turkey. What does the US want? And what does Iran want?