The Debate FRANCE 24 English

Concerns over "too much screen time" for youngsters are nothing new. In pre-internet days, young people sometimes saw their TV viewing curtailed as a punishment. But it's now been three decades since mobile phones went mainstream, and nearly two since the advent of the tablet and the smartphone. Many teachers and psychiatrists link long hours of scrolling and exposure to violent and pornographic images, as well as cyberbullying, anxiety and sleep deprivation among a generation whose attention span has shrunk.

For the first time since November, could there finally be a respite in Gaza? As warring parties and negotatiors shuttle through Cairo, we try to see through the smokescreens and the mixed messages if the stars are truly aligning. Beyond a swap of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, it's tough at face value to comprehend indirect talks between two sides whose official line is the elimination of the other. The US Secretary of State has hinted at a grand bargain from which a truce graduates into a full-blown rewrite of 75 years of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

The expression went viral in the 1960s: generation gap. Those in power had fought in World War II and were shocked to see college students in the US rebel against the call to serve their country and go to war. How much has the current movement on college campuses exposed a new generation gap? Will the consequences be as far-reaching? For the first time since the Vietnam War, Columbia University brought in police to break up a pro-Palestinian encampment, sparking further sit-in protests across the US.

In 2017, France’s new president went to Paris's Sorbonne University to defend Europe’s strategic autonomy. Since then, there's been Covid and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Now, ahead of June's EU elections, Emmanuel Macron was back with an update. 

Is it a spiraling superpower showdown or a glorified trade negotiation? The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is kicking off a three-day visit in China’s economic capital, Shanghai. Unlike during the Cold War, when exchanges between the blocs were anecdotal, today it's the world's two biggest powers at the table – powers whose biggest trading partners happen to be each other. 

Ecuador's new president is on a winning streak, with the recapture of the alleged leader of the Los Lobos gang coming hot on the heels of a referendum giving Daniel Noboa a mandate to get tougher on drug cartels.