The Debate

• Europe according to Trump: What response to claim of 'civilisational erasure'?

  Europe is weighing its words after Washington's publication of an official policy paper that warns the Old Continent is under threat of "civilisational erasure", with fading powers overrun by migrants. It’s the logical follow-up to Vice President JD Vance's admonishments back in February at the Munich Security Conference, one that goes far beyond the unexplained absence of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at last week's NATO foreign ministers' meeting. Read more'They're decaying': Trump recycles far-right tropes about European decline Are we seeing an irrational about-face on historical ties with the continent, or is the real outlier the last 80 years, when Washington took it upon itself to ensure Europe's defence in the name of fighting Soviet expansion? Before that, the US was a much more isolationist nation.  Our panel scrutinises the premise that Europe is in economic and moral decline, how it's adapting to this wild swing in superpower alliances and whether it's got what it takes to fend for itself.  Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.

  --------  

  --------
• A new Syria? One year after the fall of Bashar al-Assad

  It was exactly one year ago that a lightning offensive reached its ultimate conclusion. Syria saw the fall of Bashar al-Assad, ending over five decades of his family's dictatorial regime in a blitz that stunned the world. In Damascus, celebrations erupted in Umayyad Square, as Syrians emerged from 13 years of brutal civil war, marking a moment of both relief and disbelief. In the chaos that followed, Assad fled to Moscow and former jihadist Ahmed al-Sharaa, now the interim president, took the reins. His charm offensive has seen him meet with world leaders and even speak at the United Nations, presenting a new face of Syria. However, the year since has been fraught with challenges. Sectarian violence in Latakia and Tartous, skirmishes in the south, bombings in Damascus and tensions with Kurdish forces in the northeast have all threatened stability. While Syrians begin returning to a country unrecognisable from its former self, questions remain: Can Syria rebuild? What will become of its minorities? Have we seen enough in terms of transitional justice? And with an economy still in tatters, can the country recover from the horrors of the past? Produced by Théophille Vareille, Elisa Amiri, Riham Mahir.

  --------  

  --------
• Licence to kill? Trump, Hegseth reject war crimes allegations

  When should a soldier disobey an order? The US president and his Pentagon chief are doubling down on operations to sink alleged drug boats without summation in the Caribbean and the Pacific. The pair pushed back on a Washington Post report asserting that back in September, Pete Hegseth's orders led to a follow-up strike on a vessel, killing all remaining survivors. Among the issues are whether the interested parties could face war crimes charges. US War Department footage can make this look like a video game, but there are real human beings assassinated in these images – without trial, without warning. Already the family of one Colombian fisherman killed in September has launched legal action. Are these war crimes? And is this a war? Drug cartels are criminal syndicates, not nation states or insurgencies. On that score, Donald Trump's war on drugs is hard to read. Between pinning the blame on Venezuela's leader and pardoning Honduras's former president, who was actually serving time in the US for cocaine trafficking, what's Washington’s campaign in the Americas really all about? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Daniel Whittington, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

  --------  

  --------
• Back to the Kremlin: Will Witkoff plan seal Ukraine's fate?

  A peace plan allegedly made in Moscow, a week of furious scrambling to dial it back by Ukraine and its European allies and now it's back to the Kremlin for Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, flanked only by the US president's son-in-law Jared Kushner and an interpreter. Have negotiations in Florida moved the needle back in Kyiv's favor? How hard – or soft – can the bargaining be? Is Witkoff really Putin's puppet, as suggested last week by French newspaper Libération? Beyond last week's leaks that saw the political novice coaching the Russians on how to handle Trump, can this friend of the US president from his New York real estate days make something of the current White House's "art of the deal" approach to trading war for commercial ventures? Read morePutin accuses Europeans of sabotaging peace efforts ahead of US talks on Ukraine With facts on the ground slowly swinging in Moscow's favour, what's Russia's incentive to compromise when it's pounding critical infrastructure nightly and now claims to have taken the key eastern city of Pokrovsk after an 18-month siege? What say allies, what with Putin talking deals with Washington while serving up fresh threats of war against Europe? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

  --------  

  --------
• Nigeria's wave of kidnappings: Why the spike in attacks across the north?

  Why is Nigeria in the throes of a kidnapping epidemic? Sometimes depicted as terrorists, other times as bandits, attackers have targeted three schools inside of a week, leading some to compare the abductions with the 2014 Chibok attacks by the jihadists of Boko Haram. We do our comparison and revisit the same question as a decade ago – why would any human being abduct children; in some cases nursery school children? It's an ordeal for the victims and their families, and bad timing for Africa's most populous nation, what with the Trump administration threatening military intervention over what it calls genocide against Christians. How does the government of Bola Tinubu handle the sudden pressure from the Evangelical right in Washington? Watch moreWhat's behind Nigeria's mass kidnapping and security crisis? More broadly, how to address insecurity in Nigeria, a nation where locals feel abandoned by the state and some instances feel they have to choose between mounting their own vigilante self-defence groups and striking deals to allow their attackers grazing rights for cattle and access to water? The third option is fleeing for good from the impoverished north. But with what consequences? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

  --------  

  --------

Acerca de The Debate