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PODCAST

The Debate

FRANCE 24 English

A live debate on the topic of the day, with four guests. From Monday to Thursday at 7:10pm Paris time.

news & politics

All Episodes

00:44:30

Licence to kill?

The Debate ·

2025/12/03

When should a soldier disobey an order? The US president and his Pentagon chief doubling down on operations to sink without summation alleged drug boats in the Carribean and the Pacific, the pair pushing 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 whether interested parties could face war crimes charges. US War Department footage can make this look like a video game

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00:43:45

Back to the Kremlin: Will Witkoff plan seal Ukraine's...

The Debate ·

2025/12/02

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 Putin's puppet, as suggested last week by French newspaper Libération? Beyond last week's leaks that had the

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00:43:39

Nigeria's wave of kidnappings: Why the spike in...

The Debate ·

2025/12/01

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

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00:44:55

Getting ready to fight back? France introduces...

The Debate ·

2025/11/27

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that France is to reintroduce a national military service. Young people will be taken into the military, trained for a period of around a year and paid €800 a month. The programme will be open to all, and voluntary. Macron made this historic announcement at an army barracks in the Isère region, surrounded by young people already in uniform. The reason for this reintroduction of military service, according to the French president, is clear: the growing

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00:43:19

Witkoff's art of the deal? Trump aide coaches Kremlin...

The Debate ·

2025/11/27

The peace plan that read like it had been written by the Kremlin and that called for Ukraine to surrender land, cut back its military and give up any notion of NATO membership was already raising worried eyebrows. Now, in light of a recorded phone call between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian presidential advisor Yuri Ushakov, the concern about the closeness of the Trump administration to Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin has hit a new point of alarm. Is this the art of the deal, or a sellout

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00:40:36

International Day for the Elimination of Violence...

The Debate ·

2025/11/25

Every 10 minutes last year, a woman somewhere in the world was killed by a person close to her, while some 50,000 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or family members in 2024. These figures have been released by the UN as we mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls. But how do we get the message across that violence against women and girls is a men's issue; particularly as the rise of AI has intensified digital abuse directed at women? Produced

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00:41:11

US-backed Ukraine peace plan: What's at stake?

The Debate ·

2025/11/24

This Monday, the US and Ukraine pressed on with talks in Switzerland to come up with a mutually acceptable peace plan. This after agreeing to modify a US proposal that Kyiv and its European allies saw as a Kremlin wish list. The 28-point draft plan includes several long-standing Russian demands, crossing Kyiv’s established red lines and overlooking key European security concerns. Is this plan the basis for a genuine peace deal or destined for failure? Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Lila Paulou,

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00:44:29

Could Bamako fall? Mali's capital under threat from...

The Debate ·

2025/11/12

A string of coups and the pushing out of former colonial power France in favour of Russian support haven't stopped insurgents from going from strength throughout the so-called coup belt from Burkina Faso to Niger. We ask about the blockade on Bamako that's made it perilous for fuel delivery trucks to reach the capital of landlocked Mali, and what it would take to repel the JNIM. Mali has seen this movie before. The French intervened back in 2013, when insurgents tried to take the capital a first

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00:45:52

AI's insatiable appetite for cash, energy and data:...

The Debate ·

2025/11/12

Could the artificial intelligence boom already be running out of road? We examine the warning signs. To think that three short years ago, the commercial launch of ChatGPT took the world by storm. AI has since sparked a global race for cash, energy resources and data – all to feed the seemingly insatiable appetite of large language model computing systems. With a few US companies dominating the AI race – and a US president who's all-in with billionaires – market watchers worry about investors tempted

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00:43:00

Syria's grand pivot: What next after Sharaa's...

The Debate ·

2025/11/10

From radical insurgent with a $10 million bounty on his head to a red carpet welcome at the White House, the rebranding of Syria's Ahmed al-Sharaa is now complete. The former jihadist has become the first-ever Syrian president invited inside the Oval Office. We ask about the terms and conditions of a visit that surely seals a regional realignment on a scale unseen since the 1979 fall of the Shah of Iran. How much did backers Turkey and Saudi Arabia press for this moment? Where does it leave Israel,

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00:43:08

A truce on whose terms? Trump hails pause in trade...

The Debate ·

2025/10/30

After launching a trade war with China, Donald Trump is now declaring a deal is at hand for a one-year truce. With nothing yet signed, we ask about the South Korean sit-down between the US president and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, promises of reduced tariffs and computer chip exports by the US, the easing of restrictions on rare earth minerals and a return to soybean imports by Beijing. We also ask about the choreography of a shorter-than-expected one hour-and-40-minute meeting in South

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00:41:38

Gen Z poster child? Socialist Mamdani favourite in...

The Debate ·

2025/10/29

The whole world is watching 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani, whose army of Gen Z supporters have propelled the Democratic Socialist to heavy favorite to win next Tuesday's race for mayor of New York City. We ask about his promises of rent freezes and free buses and whether that's too radical for the world's financial capital. We also ask whether the best way to break through polarised echo chambers is through moderation, as personified by Mamdani's closest rival, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo

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00:43:44

The fall of El-Fasher: A turning point in Sudan's...

The Debate ·

2025/10/29

First it was a revolution confiscated, then a dispute between coup leaders that became a civil war. Three years on, Sudan is wondering if the fall of a key city in the western Darfur region is the cue for a second partition of the country. The massacre of civilians in Darfur is drawing comparisons with the genocide there two decades ago. That’s hardly surprising as the paramilitary leader who led the 18-month siege of El-Fasher is the same Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – aka General Hemedti – who was an

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00:43:24

Trump backing boosts Milei in midterm elections: An...

The Debate ·

2025/10/28

"Speak softly and carry a big stick." That was US President Theodore Roosevelt's adage to stake out Washington's turf in the Americas. More than a century on, it's being evoked by some after an upset win in Argentina's midterm elections by a close ally of the current occupant of the White House. Only Donald Trump didn't speak softly. He bluntly warned that rejection of the party of far-right libertarian Javier Milei would imperil Washington's $20 billion lifeline for a peso that's teetering. We ask

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00:41:52

The Tomahawks are coming? As Trump sours on Putin,...

The Debate ·

2025/10/16

Whenever Donald Trump boasts of solving eight wars in eight months, the US president always adds a sigh of regret and repeats that he thought Ukraine and Russia would be the easiest one to solve. He did it again at Monday's signing in Egypt of the plan to end the war in Gaza. So if rolling out the red carpet in Alaska and bringing Vladimir Putin in from the cold didn't work, what will? More pressure on Russia, it seems, with NATO allies like Germany pledging to purchase military hardware for Ukraine

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00:42:39

Gen Z's moment? From Nepal to Madagascar, youth-led...

The Debate ·

2025/10/15

Can we really draw a link between Nepal and Madagascar? Bangladesh and Peru? Indonesia and Morocco? Why are waves of defiance sweeping nations that are oceans apart? That defiance now bears a name: Gen Z protests. The generation born after 1997 has had its fill of corrupt elders clinging to power – and their offspring flaunting excess on social media. There too, new hashtags have taken root: nepo babies and nepo kids. The contempt of the ruling classes is as old as French queens quipping, “let them

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00:43:57

Second time a charm? French PM Lecornu offers...

The Debate ·

2025/10/14

Was it enough for France’s minority government to pass the first hurdle of a trigger-happy hostile parliament that can pass a vote of no-confidence at any time? Reappointed prime minister Sébastien Lecornu offering a suspension of Emmanuel Macron's flagship reform, the raising of the retirement age. We'll review the general policy speech of a Lecornu who this time at least made it to the National Assembly. Last week, his initial coalition government imploded spectacularly after a mere 14 hours.

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00:42:10

What's next after the Israeli hostages-Palestinian...

The Debate ·

2025/10/14

There are tears of grief, tears of anguish ... and on Monday, there are also tears of joy. For the first time in two years, Israelis and Palestinians are allowing themselves to exhale. We’ll discuss the return of the last hostages with our correspondent in Tel Aviv, the release of 2,000 prisoners from Israeli jails, the ramping up of aid into Gaza, and the silencing of guns. In a region accustomed to dashed hopes, could something positive emerge from what Donald Trump calls a peace deal? There was

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00:43:21

Bargaining and backstabbing: How to break France's...

The Debate ·

2025/10/08

Forty-eight hours after France’s new government collapsed after just 14 hours, caretaker Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is still trying to pull off the impossible and a strike a deal that can get a budget over the line before the end of the year and avoid a further spiralling of public borrowing costs. But for that, you need a compromise. To Lecornu's left, the Socialists want to go back on the 2023 pension reform; to the right, the conservative Les Republicains say "no way". We review the

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00:45:02

How has Israel changed? The open wounds of the...

The Debate ·

2025/10/07

On the second anniversary of Israel's worst day of bloodshed in its history, Hamas still holds hostages and Israel is still demolishing Gaza. Often during the past 731 days, panellists on this show have insisted it's impossible for the two sides to hear each other until the guns go silent. That's yet to happen. We ask about the faint hopes stirred by the US plan on offer, and about the impact of the longest war in Israel's history on its citizens, who are torn between those who support a defiant

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210 results

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