The Debate

Should Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen worry? Polls still predict a rematch next year of the 2017 presidential runoff, but a record abstention rate in Sunday's second round of French regional elections shows how volatile outcomes can be when citizens vote with their feet. Indifference or disillusion? How would a low turnout upset the form in 2022?

What's up with Bitcoin? It's down, dropping to its lowest level since January after China announced a crackdown on cryptocurrency mining. Is it, as stated, about going green and cooling it in the nation that's home to an estimated two-thirds of the energy-sucking giant computer servers that create virtual currencies? Or is it about reining in a cottage industry that is out of not only Beijing's control, but that of central banks and regulators the world over?

Human rights activists are saying thank you to UEFA. By siding with Budapest and barring Munich city hall from displaying rainbow-coloured lights for the Germany-Hungary match, European football's governing body has unwittingly drawn attention to Hungary's new anti-gay legislation that de facto criminalises references to homosexuality. We ask about the backlash and the support of Viktor Orban's government for UEFA's position that sports shouldn't mix with politics and religion.

Bold step or betrayal? Spain's Socialist prime minister went to Barcelona on Monday to announce the conditional pardon of nine prominent Catalan separatists, jailed for organizing a banned 2017 independence referendum. With two years left in his mandate, Pedro Sanchez says he sees an opportunity, with the promise of dialogue to follow. He's ready to brave public opinion: a recent survey has more than six in ten Spaniards against clemency.

His supporters had been waiting ten years for this day. Laurent Gbagbo basked in a hero's welcome for his grand return to Abidjan. It took a brief rekindling of Ivory Coast's civil war to force out the former president when he refused to concede the 2010 election to current leader Alassane Ouattara. After the case against Gbagbo fell apart at the International Criminal Court, we ask about the terms and conditions of the return of a larger-than-life political figure.

US President Joe Biden has been taking part in the first EU-US summit of his presidency. This high-level meeting comes after the NATO summit on Monday and the G7 summit at the weekend. Biden seems to be using his first trip abroad to mend bridges with traditional US allies, repeating his mantra: "America is back".

It feels like, in Israeli politics, it ain’t over, even when it is over. Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated his onetime chief of staff after Naftali Bennett ended Bibi's record-breaking 12 year stint as the country's longest serving prime minister. But if you listened to Netanyahu's speech just before, it wasn't quite as sporting. We'll hear how the Likud leader does not sound like a man preparing for a career change.

He has come to reaffirm ties with his closest allies. But will Joe Biden be drawn into a sausage war? The US president's first foreign tour begins with Britain, host of Friday's G7 summit and whose prime minister wrote a biography of that ultimate icon of the special relationship, Winston Churchill, but whose chummy relationship with Donald Trump drew a bit of scrutiny. Is it all ancient history now? Will Boris Johnson win over Biden?

It has been billed as a turning point for the planet. Joe Biden is off to Cornwall for a G7 summit where the world's most industrialised nations for the first time will agree on a global corporate tax rate – quite a coup. Ever since the time of the Pharaohs, governments raising revenue has always exclusively been a matter of national sovereignty.

First Guatemala, then Mexico. It's a tough maiden foreign assignment for the new US Vice President. Kamala Harris is on a mission to broach the root causes of why undocumented migrants risk it all to head north. How much pressure can Washington apply when her hosts squander or steal the aid that's meant to offer an alternative? It's not all about lofty development goals.