If you build it, they will come. Qatar 2022 is now upon us, with the opening kickoff slated for Sunday. The World Cup is taking place in a tiny desert dictatorship with virtually no footballing tradition. What could possibly go wrong? When the opening whistle blows, will we all forget about human rights, the carbon footprint of air-conditioned stadiums built from scratch and a fall schedule that factors in the desert heat?

All it takes is a spark. After a day when Russia missiles rained down across the whole of Ukraine, two projectiles landed over the border in a Polish farming village, killing two people. We gauge the evidence and the latest reactions from NATO headquarters where according to its Article 5, an attack against one is an attack against all.

The US and Chinese leaders have held a three-hour bilateral from which the two sides produced completely different accounts. What we do know is that Xi Jinping was adamant that Taiwan was a red line he would not cross. Although Joe Biden stated there is "no Cold War" between China and the USA, there is not a lot of love lost either. Biden's $3 billion military aid package for Taiwan may not help thaw the situation, with Taipei looking to deepen the Taiwan-US security accord. This amid fears that Taiwan could be invaded by China.

How does a nation teetering on the brink of becoming a failed state restore its legitimacy? Welcome to a special edition of The Debate. Fed-up Haitians have been speaking out in the streets and on social media about gang rule in the Americas’ poorest nation. Citizen journalists and fact checkers from FRANCE 24’s Observers website have put together a short documentary.

What happens when the world's richest man, who fancies himself as a champion of free speech, buys a global brand that aspires to act as the planet’s digital town square? There has been plenty of turmoil in the two weeks since Elon Musk completed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter.

It wasn't the red wave that many had predicted. Still, the forecast for Washington politics over the next two years remains stormy with a strong chance of gridlock. We break down the midterm election results that so far have split control of Congress between Democrats and Republicans. What explains this outcome?

Is democracy really on the ballot, as Joe Biden claims? The whole world is watching the US midterm elections: the first since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine fuelled soaring inflation and the first federal elections since Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. We ask about the issues that have pollsters predicting a win for opposition Republicans and what to make of anticipated record turnout in many races.

Forget trying to cool an overheating planet. In a few short years, the burning issue facing humanity has quickly become how to adapt to and afford the new normal. A summer of drought in Europe, floods in places like Pakistan and Nigeria and searing temperatures all around are just the latest illustration of what's at stake at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

Far from being over, the Covid-19 pandemic has created another widespread problem: long Covid, the persistence of symptoms beyond the initial infection. In some cases this can last months and be seriously debilitating. There are 2 million long Covid patients in France. The World Health Organization says there are some 145 million worldwide. However, the French government’s scientific council COVARS has concluded that it's a psychosomatic problem. Has enough been done to understand long Covid?

Now 60 years old, the trade embargo on Cuba has been perpetuated primarily at the behest of Washington. When it was imposed in 1962, John F. Kennedy was US president and Fidel Castro was the revolutionary leader of Cuba: a Communist too close for comfort for Washington at the height of the Cold War. Arms sales to Havana had been banned four years earlier and Cuba leant on its major ally, the Soviet Union, to fill the gap. Our panel discusses why the embargo remains in place today and if there is any hope of lifting it.