The Debate

Can citizens of Albania, population 2-point-4 million, push back against their own government and the pull of the U-S president’s family whom they accuse of capitalizing on their connections to privatize protected coastline on the Adriatic Sea? Introducing what activists have dubbed the Flamingo Revolution of 2026, an unprecedented leaderless movement against Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s bid to build a 4-billion dollar luxury resort project on land purchased by Qatari contacts of the Kushners. From no-bid contracts and allegations of fraudulent sales of land by organized crime-related figures posing as the real land owners to the diplomatic row sparked over the manhandling of ethnic Greeks in the area, we’ll ask about the case and the prime minister’s promise that the project will propel Albania into the quote “Champions League” of tourist destinations. In this David versus Goliath style-tale, there’s that blurring of lines between the personal business interests of the Trump family and the power of a sitting U-S president. The current one’s sent his son-in-law to mediate peace with Iran and Russia, pardoned his convicted real estate mogul father and appointed him ambassador to France. Why does the outrage seem stronger in Albania than in the United States or here in France, where the president just this week quietly welcomed four-term leader Edi Rama? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Piera Rocco, Charles Wente.

Another post-Brexit prime minister bites the dust. Keir Starmer has owned up to the obvious: that he's too unpopular to lead the Labour Party into the next general election. After replacing the hard left's Jeremy Corbyn, the same Starmer won a landslide election victory two years ago on the promise of stability after all the chaos of Tory rule. So where did it all go wrong? Can the heavy favourite to replace him win back disgruntled Labour voters who first flocked to the Conservatives and now to the far-right Reform UK party? Read moreAndy Burnham, ‘King of the North’ and frontrunner to replace Starmer as PM We ask about the politics of popular Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, and reflect – on the eve of Tuesday's tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum – if the same Britain that took a punt on leaving the European Union can rally behind any leader or any party to end a decade of turmoil. Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Piera Rocco, Juliette Brown, Charles Wente.

Is it better to persuade or to confront? French leader Emmanuel Macron is opting for the royal treatment with Donald Trump at Versailles, what with a dinner to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the King of France's support for the birth of a new nation. It's all about keeping the US president on board: on Ukraine, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and more. But will flattery work when it comes to the AI revolution? Lunch preceded dinner with tech titans the guests of honour on the closing day of the G7 summit in the French Alps. There, the elephant in the room was Trump's sudden decision last Friday to give Anthropic 90 minutes to shut down foreign access to its latest artificial intelligence models. The reason cited: national security. How exposed are both governments and major corporations like French banking giant BNP Paribas, which recently announced it was partnering with Anthropic for its security needs? Can a stroke of the pen from the Oval Office suddenly expose the rest of the world to hackers? Read moreAnthropic disables access to top-tier AI models after US ban on foreign use For years, the same Europeans who counted on the US defence shield to protect them also banked on its big tech: everything from Visa credit cards and Google searches to Amazon deliveries and cloud storage. Amazon boss Jeff Bezos is the star attraction at this week's VivaTech trade fair in Paris. Silicon Valley's dominance has grown to the point where it draws the planet's money and data. Its billionaire bosses dictate their terms and oligarchs like Elon Musk peddle pro-Kremlin, far-right messaging on their platforms. So how does the rest of the world defend its own national security and sovereignty? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

If Donald Trump calls it a peace deal, does that make it so? '"Let the oil flow," trumpeted the US president after agreeing on the day of his 80th birthday to a memorandum of understanding with Iran. Trump was quick to schedule a signing ceremony for this coming Friday in Switzerland, across from where he's flown in for a G7 summit on the French side of Lake Geneva. We ask what's actually in the memorandum of understanding brokered by Pakistan and Qatar, and whether the uncertainty is well and truly lifted for the world's biggest maritime choke point, the Strait of Hormuz. Will Iran continue to charge for passage? Will the Gulf states pay the US protection money, as Trump insinuated in a New York Times interview? Read moreWhat we know about the US-Iran memorandum of understanding Are Europeans right to volunteer naval patrols? And what should those signatories of the 2015 UN-brokered nuclear agreement make of vague US promises of a new deal with Iran? Everything was done to accommodate the US. Hosts France even pushed back the G7 summit by a day so Trump could enjoy his birthday festivities in Washington. How accommodating should allies be going forward? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Three months into what was originally billed as four-week war, is an end really in sight? Donald Trump's messaging on bargaining with Iran was enough to push Brent crude oil below $100 a barrel for the first time in two weeks. Both Washington and Tehran are managing expectations of a final deal or "memorandum of understanding". Time is not on Trump's side, what with a World Cup to host in less than three weeks and inflation that's fast erasing the sweetener of tax breaks for voters ahead of the November midterm elections. But if inflation's bad in the US, Iran has economic ruin to contend with. So again, who blinks first? Read morePossible Iran-US deal: What we know about the key issues on both sides And how do regional players align? Gulf states are divided between hawks – led by the United Arab Emirates, who've drawn closer to Israel in this conflict – and doves, led by the Strait of Hormuz's other frontline state Oman. So which is it: a deal, a return to war or permanent state of limbo over the world's biggest choke point for oil and gas? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Jean-Vincent Russo, Guillaume Gougeon, Charles Wente.

Can border walls keep out pandemics? The World Health Organization is officially branding the Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo a "public health emergency of international concern". As the death toll from the rare strain climbs, so does the number of contact cases. Ituri province may seem remote on a map, but nowhere's very far in a globalised world. Watch moreEbola in DR Congo: 'This could be a very bad outbreak,' MSF health worker says We ask about the outbreak and the lessons learned from previous pandemics. Since Covid, the United States has quit the UN's health body. Public aid and science budgets are trending down among all G7 nations. What does that mean for the WHO and for global health? Why is it that despite Covid and despite globalisation, there's such a backlash against vaccines, cross-border cooperation and more broadly, against science itself? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Juliette Brown, Charles Wente.

If Venezuela proved easier than Iran – where Donald Trump's still looking for a win – could that explain why the attention seems to be turning to Cuba? The United States last week dispatched its CIA director to Havana and offered aid, all the while its crippling blockade is plunging the Communist island nation in the dark. We talk about carrots and sticks in the latest of a long, very long list of US pressure campaigns. History is littered by failed US attempts at regime change in Cuba, dating all the way back to 1959 and the revolution led by Fidel Castro – who would have turned 100 this year. We ask our panel if this time is any different for a regime that has survived embargoes and the end of the Cold War, the decline of agriculture and sugar cane exports, as well as successive waves of mass emigration. In this standoff, Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, has been front and center. Just how much does the US secretary of state's push jibe with what citizens of Cuba want or need? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Juliette Brown, Charles Wente.