The Debate

At least seven migrants have died in the freezing no-man's land at Belarus's border with the European Union. Minsk has been subject to sanctions over last year's post-electoral crackdown ordered by strongman Alexander Lukashenko. His regime is accused of encouraging charter flights from Iraq and Turkey and then sending them towards the border, with neighbouring Lithuania wondering how thousands have come their way, compared with 80 migrants for all of 2020.

The 2021 joint Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa is calling out the Duterte years in an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24. We hear from the Filipino journalist and co-founder of the news website Rappler on how social media – and in particular Facebook – have distorted democracy in her country these past six years.

A coronavirus shut down the world economy. Now, will an energy crunch stop the recovery in its tracks? Europeans who scoffed at Britain's post-Brexit shortage of fuel truckers are no longer laughing as they watch their natural gas bills go through the roof.

They took Kabul without a fight. Now comes the hard part. As Afghanistan stares at a cash crunch coupled with a food crisis, the UN warns that half the country's population is at risk. After empty promises by the Taliban to keep women in school and the workforce, no foreign power has so far recognised the country's new leadership.

Poland's Constitutional Court, whose members are chosen by the Parliament's sitting majority, has sided with the government and challenged the principle that EU member states must defer to the European Court of Justice. Warsaw insists it is has no intention of leaving, but could the Poles break the EU apart?

Bamako has summoned the former colonial power's ambassador after Emmanuel Macron again blasted the junta for deflecting from what he sees as its own lack of governance. From the second coup in one year to Paris's decision to draw down part of the 5,000 troops it has stationed in the fight against a jihadist insurgency, the escalating war of words went into overdrive two weeks ago when Mali's prime minister accused France of abandoning his country.

What did the planet learn from six hours without Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram? The glitch triggered by an update on servers went on long enough to remind us how much we put our lives in the hands of a single social media behemoth. It was a chance to realise that we depend on Facebook for everything from private messages to real-time business communications and even payments. Livelihoods depend on it.

It's the biggest tax whistleblowing bombshell yet. Kings, presidents, prime ministers and former prime ministers are among those outed so far in the Pandora Papers. It's the same sophisticated shell game exposed by LuxLeaks, the Panama Papers and other data dumps that name and shame the high and mighty who stash their cash far from prying eyes. So what's new since last time? Will the Pandora Papers change the conversation?

What can you get away with if you've been a French president? This Thursday saw the second conviction for former leader Nicolas Sarkozy, who's been found guilty of spending nearly twice the legal limit on his failed 2012 re-election bid. With two other cases pending, questions abound surrounding the one-term conservative president and the strength of France's justice system.

After the Covid-19 pandemic turned the world on its head, France faces crucial choices over its future. With less than seven months to go before presidential elections, why do identity politics seem to rule the airwaves? For French politics junkies, it's an unsettling start to the campaign. We ask our panel about the government's latest announcements on visa restrictions for North Africans and the unfiltered anti-Islam speech of potential candidates vying for a slice of the far right's electorate.