The Debate

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.

By holding its fifth election in less than four years, can Israel break the stalemate? Prime Minister Yair Lapid hopes to remain in power after his coalition collapsed in June, but veteran politician Benjamin Netanyahu, now 73 years old and on trial for corruption, is eyeing a comeback. Many say the country's proportional representation system does not help stability in the Knesset. Meanwhile, some one million Palestinian voters make up 17 percent of the Israeli electorate but are historically disenfranchised. What will this election hold for them?

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, better known as Lula, has thanked the people of Brazil for his election victory. It marks a miraculous political comeback for the man who was elected president twice before being sent to prison over a corruption scandal, then released and allowed to stand again. Lula stands on the brink of his third term as Brazil's president. Can he unite a country bitterly divided by this presidential election?

Will the 2022 World Cup, which is taking place in less than a month, be a successful exercise in "sportswashing"? Plagued with accusations of worker abuse, homophobia, sexism, racism and corruption since FIFA awarded them the World Cup 12 years ago, Qatar has had to answer for thousands of harrowing accounts of exploitation – mostly of South Asian migrant workers toiling for long hours in intense heat to build the glittering new stadiums, hotels, roads and airports in place to welcome an expected 1.2 million visitors. We put the question to our panel, including journalist Chloé Domat, who has filmed a special documentary on the issue.

This Wednesday saw a working lunch between Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz – a meeting stripped of fanfare and followed up with no press conference, simply a laconic tweet from the German side. Just how badly is Europe's Franco-German motor misfiring? Germany has decided to go solo on energy security and favour US military hardware over European in its landmark military overhaul. The EU's united front in the face of Russia's war in Ukraine may be showing some cracks. Which way for Germany and for Europe?

What does Rishi Sunak stand for? Britain’s youngest prime minister in two centuries is also its first Asian and first Hindu PMwhose "whatever it takes" Covid-19 rescue plan as chancellor helped the poorest when they needed it most. The UK’s fifth Conservative leader in six years is also the Oxford and Stanford-educated pro-Brexit former banker whose personal wealth makes him the target of "out of touch" accusations.