The Debate

After contagion in the Arabian Peninsula, should the entire Horn of Africa fear a domino effect? Just as US President Donald Trump’s decision to invade Iran drew the Saudis back to Yemen, did threats over the Bab al-Mandab Strait light the fuse in Ethiopia, where last week, unresolved issues between the government and its Tigray region erupted? Could a potential return to civil war draw in regiona...

A minor bump on the French far right's road to power, or a car crash that wipes out years of rebranding? Bombshell allegations of past anti-Semitic tropes by the man Marine Le Pen has touted as her future prime minister could test her years-long effort to convince French voters that the National Rally is a party of government, rather than the fringe far-right National Front of old. We examine the...

There's a new pope in town and he's got very different ideas on what France's far right calls the defense of Christian civilisation. Leo XIV is concluding his trip to France in the eastern city of Metz, which is closely associated with a founding father of present-day European federalism, Robert Schuman. There, the head of the world's largest organised religion proudly stated that Europe's roots a...

It's their AI world and we're just living in it. If that's the feeling of those who suffer from AI anxiety, it may worsen watching the Chinese president's first state visit to Washington in nine years. If there's one issue that the planet's biggest superpowers agree on, it's that now is not the time for global regulation of artificial intelligence. As they sit down to a White House state dinner ju...

It's all about his high holiness here in France. For weeks already, the nation's been abuzz over the upcoming visit of Leo XIV, from Friday evening mass at Notre-Dame Cathedral and another mass before 600,000 faithful outside Paris to the pilgrimage city of Lourdes and a trip to Metz, hometown of father of European unity Robert Schuman.  A papal visit to France usually draws much attention to the...

A year ago, Donald Trump went to the rostrum of the United Nations General Assembly and after taking an axe to US aid and development funding, he read the world the riot act. One Iran war later, the US president is sticking to script, with a speech that borrowed much of the language from last year. With citizens on five continents now feeling the pain at the pump, we ask what it will take to tame...

There's the inroads of the far right, but also the broader desire for change. Introducing Berlin's answer to Zohran Mamdani: Elif Eralp, who led the far-left Die Linke party's historic win in Sunday's municipal elections in Berlin. We ask if the 45-year-old daughter of Turkish political exiles can push through her promises of rent freezes and nationalisation of private real estate companies. Just...

As the United States threatens Europe with more tariffs and eyes Greenland, Russia tests the continent’s resolve over Ukraine and the planet overheats, where do citizens feel the biggest threat is coming from? In her Wednesday state of the Union speech, the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen went big on manning the borders, suggesting new tools to better deal with migration. This c...

US president Donald Trump has previously talked about making Canada the 51st state, Now, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Europe, and the president of the European Commission has proposed the country ‘associate membership’. In this edition, we ask what that means and how it differs from the close status afforded to Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the UK – countries which Carney is also v...

First, there was US President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to strike Iran. Then, came the quagmire of a war without an exit strategy. Now, six months later, with access to the Strait of Hormuz all but shut, global shipping has taken another hit the other end of the Arabian Peninsula. Iran-backed Houthis are threatening access to the Red Sea.  Whereas Washington jumped at Israel’s request to ta...

Talk about doomscrolling. In the past week, our timelines have been full of dark predictions of our imminent demise, including one by a Silicon Valley engineer who puts the chances of artificial intelligence wiping out humanity at better than 10 percent. The recent breach of the machine-learning programmers' site Hugging Face by AI machines is also triggering panic. In this edition, we ask: can ma...

Once in a generation – sometimes once in a lifetime – a singular event blindsides the entire planet. 25 years on, does the memory of the 9/11 attacks on New York's Twin Towers, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania fade into history, or is it still as raw and vivid as on that sunny September morning?  Back then, the world was still processing the end of the Cold War. Western spies who had learned Russi...

With the digital age came the scramble for minerals below and to master the heavens above. US President Donald Trump wants a thousand rocket launches per year and with SpaceX’s reusable modules leading the way. The United States towers over the competition – which is why Ukraine’s president has to beg Elon Musk to use his Starlink low orbit satellite system to take out the Russian cruise missile l...

Ukraine’s momentum on the battlefield was a primary focus at July’s NATO summit in Turkey. Kyiv’s long-range drones and US President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement that the Washington would allow Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles on in the country. However, Trump's deal has yet to materialize. Moreover, Russia has ramped up cruise missile launches and Ukraine has run out of air defenses to...

The result was not enough to win outright, but certainly enough to shake Germany and Europe to their core: the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) trounced the ruling conservatives in the impoverished former East German state of Saxony-Anhalt in Sunday's election. We ask about the consequences of voting for an anti-immigrant, pro-Russian party that wants schools to teach less about the ill...

Could Europeans awaken next Monday to another shock bellwether moment? German voters could for the first time since World War II give an outright majority to a far-right party in regional elections. We ask about the AfD's push in Saxony-Anhalt and a charismatic lead candidate whose campaign strives to put charm above the vitriol usually associated with a party with pro-Nazi roots. Saxony-Anhalt ha...

What can an 11th-century comic strip about the Norman Conquest of England tell us about the spectre of sea change in 2026 Europe? France’s president is on hand for the hottest ticket in London, the first-ever cross-Channel visit of the Bayeux Tapestry, which, for the record, is not a tapestry but a delicate scroll of embroidered cloth that chronicles a radical turning point in our continent’s hist...

A lot happened during summer recess: France's constitutional council struck down the core of a new law to ban social media for under-15s, but it did validate the extension to high schoolers of a phone ban already in effect for younger pupils. Why one but not the other? On the first day of school across this country and others, we size up what's best for future citizens, parents and teachers, all g...

It may well be one of the tragic consequences of global warming. Scientists will tell us whether receding glaciers are to blame for last Wednesday’s ice shelf collapse that triggered a catastrophic flood, cascading down more than 3,000 metres from the Chinese border into Nepal. We get the latest and draw consequences for Nepal and its Himalayan superpower neighbours  China and India , and for the...

After a stunning performance in Argentina’s come-from-behind win against England, 39-year-old Lionel Messi secured the defending World Cup champions their second final in a row – much to the delight of organizers. Taking note of Messi’s star power, the US bent the rules to include him on the Inter Miami side in the Club World Cup last year. In this edition we ask: what legacy will there be for the...

In this edition, we take a look at the French love for food – in this case, chain rotisserie chicken and the current squabble over it that has turned political. When the Master Poulet fast-food chicken chain opened up a branch in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Ouen, the Socialist Mayor Karim Bouamranne saw red, as the heat lamps and the smell of rotisserie until 2am did not gel with his vision for a...

Who needs nuclear weapons when you have the Strait of Hormuz? While ordinary Iranians are far worse off than on February 28th – when the US and Israel launched a war that killed the Supreme Leader on day one – the Islamic Republic has since shown it has massive leverage in the war and is betting that Donald Trump’s threats of invasion are empty. Iran 's leadership can now paint US president Donald...

Forget last week's Nato summit, where Donald Trump put the alliance through another rollercoaster. It's Bastille Day in Paris, with the “Coalition of the willing” – Nato minus the United States – gathering for a more measured summit on the eve of the traditional military parade down the Champs-Élysées, where aircraft from Germany, Ukraine, the UK, Sweden and Greece will join the flypast. Beyond th...

It's not even Bastille Day yet, and France is already in the grip of its third heatwave of the season. Hospitals are under strain, wildfires are spreading, riverbeds are running dry, work and study are being disrupted—and there's even a shortage of ice. Many of you reacted strongly to our recent discussion on whether air conditioning is the answer. We'll briefly revisit that debate, but also look...

The world’s longest-running democracy is celebrating its 250th anniversary. It is a milestone for a United States that still seems like a new world to many Europeans. Since 1789, the US has been governed under the same constitution while in France, there have been five republics, three monarchies and three dictatorships – including the Nazi occupation. In this edition, we ask: what is the signific...