The Debate

Europe and Africa already had more than enough in their in-tray going into their first Brussels summit in nearly eight years. Now you can add coup contagion and the pullout of French-led anti-terror forces from Mali. The day began in Paris for key players in the Sahel. Will the crisis overshadow the EU-African Union summit?

It's not a question of if but how: France's president is hosting African and European allies before the announcement of a withdrawal from Mali. Relations have seriously soured with the junta in Bamako ever since a second coup in as many years and the cozying up of the military to Russia and the mercenaries of the Wagner Group.

Is tying humanitarian assistance to human rights the right course for Afghanistan? Aid agencies are this week imploring the West and in particular the US Treasury to allow money transfers to flow unhindered and to unblock desperately needed funds.

After Moscow and Kiev, Emmanuel Macron is in Berlin to huddle over Ukraine. The French president's host is also fresh off the plane. German chancellor Olaf Scholz is just back from Washington to host Macron and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda. We find out if the three are on the same page, what with 100,000-plus Russian troops still surrounding Ukraine on three sides.

Emmanuel Macron is on a special trip to Moscow to meet and talk with Vladimir Putin. The mission: to try and calm matters on the Ukraine-Russia border and avoid what many analysts say is certain war. Macron is representing the EU, with France holding the rotating presidency. What influence does he take into these talks?

Can Xi Jinping's China pull it off? Can happy pictures of a torch relay reduced to 72 hours and tightly cropped images of top-level competitions make the world forget about the empty seats, the Covid bubble, the artificial snow, the tight security and the pressure on sponsors over human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong?

Denmark is the EU's first nation to lift all domestic Covid restrictions, raising hopes in northern Europe and beyond. Here in France, new infections have never been higher, but the authorities are relaxing rules too. That's because the vaccination rate is near 90 percent and hospitals are managing. The omicron variant is more infectious but milder. Milder if you are vaccinated, warns the World Health Organization. Many nations remain vulnerable.

Is there no stopping all-out civil war in Myanmar? On the first anniversary of the coup that ended power sharing between Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy and a military whose candidates had just been trounced in a general election, a silent strike took place to protest the brutal crackdown against calls to return to civilian rule. Can peaceful protest still work?

Condemn or cooperate? West African leaders are grappling with that question as they scramble for the antidote to coup contagion. Since regional bloc ECOWAS decided earlier this month to play hardball with Mali's junta, tensions have spiralled far and wide. Now Bamako is expelling France's ambassador amid a war of words over the hiring of the Russian mercenaries of Wagner, right under the noses of French and EU forces there to fight a jihadist insurgency.

Every two years, football comes home... to Africa. This year, the Africa Cup of Nations is hosted by Cameroon and, no doubt, there's plenty to criticise: dodgy calls by the ref, questionable Covid-19 protocols and a deadly stampede that left eight dead. And yet, football fans the world over are enthralled. Every day brings new twists: minnows have upset powerhouses, and stars who normally spend winter in the European leagues have shown up for their national sides. So what exactly is it about AFCON that's got us riveted?