The Debate

Making Ukrainians freeze in winter wasn’t enough.
A Russian strike hitting a moving train Tuesday in the northeast Kharkiv region. Six killed. As the casualty toll on both sides approaches two million according to an independent study, we’ll weigh the grinding effect of nearly four years of all-out war. 
And what it will take to end it: ahead of more talks in Abu Dhabi, the United States adopting a neutral tone in the face of Russia's demand that Ukraine gives up the entirety of the eastern region of Donbas. What are Kyiv’s options?
What are Europe’s options? NATO secretary general Mark Rutte telling allies to "keep on dreaming" if they think they can go it alone without a U-S-led NATO. With the French president due to speak in the coming weeks on an eventual expansion of France’s nuclear umbrella to neighbors and public opinion across the continent rallying against Donald Trump’s hostile takeover bid for Greenland, what does 2026 have in store?
 
Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Daniel Whittington, Piera Rocco, Charles Wente.

Now that Iran's internet blackout is over, how many are dead during those 20 days? Nationwide New Year's protests were met with a new measure of ruthlessness. We ask about a death toll that could run into the tens of thousands and what this scale of loss will mean for Iranians both at home and abroad. 
Read more‘As in wartime’: Iranian doctors recount deadly crackdown on protesters
We also revisit Donald Trump's promise at the height of the defiance that help was on the way. What to make of US warships only now arriving in the region? For what aim? Is Washington engaging or disengaging?
Allies like Saudi Arabia want no part of a new bombing campaign and the is US pressuring Iran, while easing away from a presence to support the Kurds in neighbouring Syria. 
More importantly, the regime this time proved its ability to shut down the internet for as long as it takes. Despite the inflation that triggered the protests, has the Islamic Republic – weakened after US-Israeli strikes on its nuclear facilities last summer – emerged stronger?
Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Daniel Whittington, Piera Rocco, Charles Wente.

It's being described as the mother of all deals. But will the trade agreement struck between the EU and India lead to a wider sense of a happy family? The signing took place with predictable and – some might say – justifiable fanfare. The headline says it's a free trade festival, 20 years in the planning, with clear and present opportunities for business to go back and forth.
We discuss the plan, analyse the opportunities and shine a light on the possible threats. In a world where local production is often bragged about by politicians, does a multilateral accord represent a threat to local businesses? The scenes of French farmers protesting over the European Union deal with South America's Mercosur are still very fresh in our minds.
Produced by Mark Owen, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Piera Rocco, Charles Wente.

Just 17 days after the shooting death of Renée Good, masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis have again shot dead a US citizen, this time 37-year-old Alex Pretti. Again, there's video evidence to contradict official narrative that the victims were acting as domestic terrorists, along with a race to gather evidence before it can be tainted or destroyed, media echo chambers and a US president who watches from on high.
Why these shows of force? Will they discourage dissent or trigger a backlash? Do these hurriedly recruited federal agents armed with military-grade weapons answer to courts and lawmakers, or solely to the US president?
And while passions reach boiling point in specific opposition strongholds, will the rest of the United States continue to go about its business? At what point is the rest of the population affected by the breaking of norms and the pushing of boundaries?
More broadly, has the veneer come off a superpower that claimed a certain exceptionalism in its values; values on which it arguably won the Cold War? What's changed? Is that change permanent?
Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Piera Rocco, Charles Wente.

While the world waited on what Donald Trump would utter on Greenland on Wednesday, what if we missed the bigger picture? For 73 minutes, the US president, before an audience of traditional transatlantic allies in Davos, hurled invectives and insults while doubling down on what's now official US policy: the assessment that Europe is a continent in civilisational decline; implying that it's overrun by non-Christians and non-Whites. How do Europeans respond?
Even far-right aficionados of MAGA have a hard time with the Greenland grab. Trump's imminent threat has passed for now, but can European leaders establish a common framework for what lies ahead? How do what the Canadian prime minister called "middle powers" coalesce? 
And if the time for flattery and calling Trump "Daddy" truly has passed, then what’s the next step for Europe, for NATO and for nations the world over that still believe in the rules-based order of old?
Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Piera Rocco.