The Debate

Can Europe man the ramparts on its own? As the US war secretary snubbed a NATO defence ministers' meeting in Brussels, EU leaders converged on the 16th-century Alden Biesen castle in Belgium's Limburg province to answer former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi's call for a "big bazooka" approach to reform and competitiveness. 
But behind the walls of the one-time headquarters of the Knights of the Teutonic Order lies a rift: between France, which is pushing a "Buy European" approach to strategic autonomy; and a converging German-Italian couple, which is more focused on lightening regulation and striking new trade deals. 
Read moreEU leaders back major economic overhaul to counter pressure from US, China and Russia
How much of a sense of urgency is there when it comes to safeguarding strategic industries, energy, defence and financing of the 27-member EU's needs? This Old Continent feels caught in a superpower squeeze: between China, with its flood of cheap goods; the US, with its adversarial trade policy and its full-throttled support for Eurosceptic far-right parties; and Russia, which continues to pound Ukraine just as Washington signals the end of its historic role as Europe's defense shield. 
When Draghi was chair of the European Central Bank, he once assured that he would do "whatever it takes" to safeguard the continent's common currency. Markets believed him. For Europe circa 2026, what does "whatever takes" look like and who can deliver it?

Here in Europe, the heads have started to roll. As journalists and prosecutors continue to speed-read their way through the more than 3 million documents dumped a week ago Friday in the Epstein files, the revelations have already led to resignations, sackings and criminal probes in Norway, France, the UK and beyond. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is hanging by a thread and he never even met Epstein.
Over in the US, former president Bill Clinton has been subpoenaed by a Congressional panel, but what about the current occupant of the White House and his commerce secretary, who visibly lied about never having seen Epstein again after 2005? In the age of echo chambers, does telling the truth ultimately matter?
Read moreUS Attorney General Bondi deflects questions, clashes with democrats over Epstein files
More broadly, will the Epstein files go down in history as the moment that made accountability great again, or be remembered as the bellwether of an irreversible erosion of the rules-based order?

Imagine having to mourn a loved one in secret. One month on, that seems to be the lot of many inside a shellshocked Iran, this after seeing the regime shut the internet and start shooting at unarmed protesters across the country in towns big and small. When the lights came back on, the Islamic Republic of Iran had got away with the very bloodbath that Donald Trump warned it not to carry out. 
While Washington's attention has instead shifted to nuclear negotiations with Tehran, the journalists at FRANCE 24's investigative unit have been hard at work on the testimony and images sent their way – with contacts risking their own lives by getting the word out. We show you an excerpt from their documentary "Iran, massacre under a blackout".
Watch moreExclusive: Iran, massacre under a blackout
You can sometimes win a war by annihilating your enemy. We ask our panel about the bloodbath, the subsequent arrests and if in a nation of 90 million people, Iran's clerics can simply annihilate dissent.
Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Rochelle Ferguson.

Sanae Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party has turned the wobbly coalition she inherited back in October as Japan's first woman prime minister into a landslide win in snap elections, giving the 64-year-old admirer of late British maverick prime minister Margaret Thatcher enough leeway to reform the constitution and break with eight decades of pacifism. 
In a nation whose population is in decline, we ask why young Gen Z voters broke for the anti-immigrant, China-bashing nationalist and whether flag-waving is the way to go. Cue the conservative sweep in Thailand this past weekend. There, it's border tensions with Cambodia that upended the script. 
And then there is what Takaichi does with her endorsement by US President Donald Trump, who's preparing a spring visit to China, and a United States whose military presence remains vital for both Japan and South Korea. Washington is in two minds when it comes to defending Taiwan and keeping the peace in the Pacific. How volatile could it get in the region?
Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Rochelle Ferguson.

It's snowing in the Alps. Normal weather for February, you say? But cue the sighs of relief of organisers of the 25th Winter Olympics in Milan and the Dolomites resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo. Organisers of the next Games just over the border in the French Alps will take heart. Mother Nature has been fickle in recent years. 
As the US vice president and secretary of state attend the opening ceremonies, there's been plenty of media coverage of the flying in of federal immigration agents, the same who've been grabbing five-year-olds and shooting protesters in Minnesota. The ICE agents are there purely in an advisory role, but it throws the spotlight on the optics of what's ostensibly PM Giorgia Meloni's moment of glory. The only European leader invited to Donald Trump's inauguration a year ago must astutely calibrate between her far-right roots and Europe's interests as she hosts the planet. How will these Olympics play in times of testy transatlantic relations, especially ahead of next summer's World Cup in the United States?
More broadly, what legacy for the 2026 Winter Olympics? Which exploits and which characters will transcend the flag waving? And when the fortnight's over, how will the locals feel about having welcomed the world?
Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Daniel Whittington, Ilayda Habip, Delphine Liou.