The Debate

There's no need to look as far as Russian troll farms for disinformation and smear campaigns. Too often, it starts at our local schoolyard and ends with tragic consequences. The French are grappling with yet another teen suicide at the start of this school year. Bullying and hazing are as old as humanity. But to many, it feels like there is a post-pandemic epidemic. Is that perception or reality?

Are we witnessing the final act in a decades-old conflict, or the start of a new chapter of hardship and strife? Ethnic Armenians are fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh by the thousands after last week's lightning-fast capture of that enclave. They are dismissing guarantees for their safety by Azerbaijan's president, in part because of a long history of bloodshed and ethnic cleansing by both sides.

Remember France's "red line" following Niger’s coup in July? It has now faded. France is reneging on its August refusal to pull its ambassador from Niamey, and now French soldiers are packing their bags after having also left Mali and Burkina Faso.

Does Volodymyr Zelensky still have that magic touch? The plucky leader who emerged on the world stage as the face of Ukraine’s David-versus-Goliath struggle against Russia is back in Washington to lobby for support after a showdown with the invader at the UN in New York. But this time, the headwinds seem to be getting stronger. As the US approaches an election year, isolationists in the Republican party this week blocked a major defence spending bill.

Separatists in the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh have agreed to lay down their weapons on Day 2 of what may be remembered as a tale in three acts: Azerbaijan's drone-powered win on the battlefield in 2020, the months-long blockade of the only land corridor into the enclave and finally, Tuesday's sudden offensive by Baku.

Did India order last June's hit on a prominent Sikh activist outside Vancouver? Canada thinks so. PM Justin Trudeau's public airing of his spy services' suspicions has now prompted tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats in Delhi and Ottawa. We ask about the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and more broadly, the politics at play for a religious minority of 25 million: most of them in India, with a strong voice in both countries and views that range from moderate to hardline separatist.

After an all-too-avoidable calamity, how to assist survivors from Libya’s dam bursts without lining the pockets of those who failed? As the UN estimates the death toll from the Derna disaster at 4,000 killed and another 9,000 missing, we ask about the years of neglect, the unheeded warning signs that Storm Daniel was coming, and in a nation effectively split in two, how channeling relief for the tragedy might in fact help the strongman who controls eastern Libya.

Mitt Romney is retiring from US politics with a message for the old guard: the former presidential contender says it is time for a new generation of political leaders. Romney had both Joe Biden and Donald Trump in his sights with this statement, but also a lengthy list of other ageing representatives and senators.

It has been 30 years since the first Oslo Accord - a move that was touted unprecedented to try to achieve peace in the Middle East. An accord that saw Israelis and Palestinians sign a document that led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. Yitzak Rabin, Shimon Peres – there for Israel – and Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas for the Palestinians. Bill Clinton was chair and the idea of a two-state solution was written on paper and signed.

Flooding, brought by Storm Daniel, has pushed a divided nation to the limit with alarming levels of death and destruction. Badly battered by the storm, the coastal city of Derna is now underwater after the storm caused a dam there to burst. Other cities along Libya’s eastern coast such as Susah, Marj and Benghazi are all badly flooded. More than 2,300 have died while some 10,000 remain unaccounted for, numbers published by the Red Crescent show.