Spotlight

Gavin Lee is pleased to welcome Alexander Titov, Lecturer in Modern European History at Queen's University Belfast and a specialist on Russia. He's joined us to discuss high-level meetings in Abu Dhabi, Dublin and the prospects for ending the war in Ukraine. Titov explains that Russia wants negotiations to go beyond a ceasefire to include territory, NATO and Ukraine 's post-war relations with othe...

François Picard is pleased to welcome Victor Casallo, Director of the Department of Philosophical and Theological Studies at Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University. Can a pope shaped by Peru's history of political violence, social inequality and religious activism help a deeply polarised nation heal and rediscover the possibility of dialogue? "We tend to see the other person not as someone who holds a...

François Picard is pleased to welcome the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric. “You may consider war a human condition,” argues Spoljaric. “But brutality, barbarity, is not a human condition.” Her warning recalls the fundamental premise of the 1949 Geneva Conventions: even in war, there can be no lawless space, and certain red lines must never be crossed. W...

As Teddy Riner throws his hat in the race for the French presidency, amid France's sociopolitical and economic crises, François Picard is pleased to welcome Lex Paulson, Director of Executive Programs at UM6P School of Collective Intelligence at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. The prospect of Olympic judo champion Riner entering France's presidential race raises questions that extend well beyo...

François Picard welcomes Dahlia Scheindlin, Israeli author, political analyst, strategic consultant and pollster, to examine a question that reaches far beyond the immediate struggle for power: Can Israel move beyond Netanyahu amid coalition deadlock, growing disillusionment in Washington and the persistent limits of political inclusion? As Gadi Eisenkot embarks on a 45-day race to form a governme...

After wrapping up his first visit to Uruguay, Pope Leo XIV heads to Argentina for the second leg of his South America tour, where he's expected to draw the biggest turnout of his papacy so far. Colleen Dulle, Vatican Correspondent at America Magazine and co-host of the "Inside the Vatican" podcast, joins us to analyse the significance of Leo's Latin American tour.

"We are facing a crisis of human civilisation. And we are going to win." A defiant Jean-Luc Mélenchon was in fighting mood on Saturday as he presented his presidential manifesto at Le Bourget, north of Paris. It is his fourth bid for the French presidency, and he has chosen a venue steeped in left-wing campaign history: the site of former president François Hollande's famous 2012 rally. With socia...

Is Senator Jon Ossoff the future of the Democratic Party? Following a resounding midterm victory in Georgia, a former Republican stronghold, the 39-year-old senator has emerged as a prominent figure as the Democrats look ahead to 2028 for their next presidential nominee. His natural confidence, polished media performances and ability to appeal to a diverse electorate have prompted comparisons with...

François Picard is pleased to welcome Craig Copetas, Greek-American author, international affairs columnist and editor at Türkiye Today and French Senator Hélène Conway-Mouret. "What you have is a tormented and unstable president who's desperate for immortality." With this arresting assessment, Copetas captures what he considers the defining paradox of Donald Trump's presidency in the aftermath of...

In American politics, even presidential power has its limits. And now, the laws of political gravity may finally be catching up with Donald Trump's hyper-aggressive exercise of executive authority. Following what political scientist Ian Bremmer describes as the most consequential electoral reversal for a governing party in more than half a century, the president and founder of Eurasia Group and GZ...

As Americans head to the polls for the midterm elections, François Picard welcomes historian Timothy Snyder, professor at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs, for a conversation about the future of American democracy, the growing political influence of technology billionaires and the dangers of a new Gilded Age. Who really holds power in Donald Trump's America: the president...

“They say it takes a village. In this case, it took a world.” After 28 years and some 50,000 kilometres, British explorer and adventurer Karl Bushby has returned to his hometown of Hull, completing an extraordinary life journey across four continents that illustrates not only the limits of human endurance, but also the intricate relationship between individual determination, geopolitical constrain...

FRANCE 24's Gavin Lee assesses the last-minute campaign dramas and takes a US election overview on the "must-watch states" alongside Professor Donald Green, Professor of Political Science at Columbia University and co-author of the definitive book "Get Out the Vote", and foreign affairs analyst Laurie Dundon, who previously served in the US State Department during the Clinton administration.

American filmmaker Zarina Zabrisky has lived and reported across the Dnipro River in Ukrainian-controlled Kherson for the past three years. She’s been speaking to FRANCE 24's Gavin Lee about the events of the past 24 hours.

François Picard is pleased to welcome Dr Joseph Downing, Senior Lecturer in International Relations and Politics at Aston University. In modern France, the politics of insecurity increasingly extends beyond questions of crime and public order to encompass deeper struggles over national identity, disappearance of the political centre and erosion of democratic values. The emergence of far-right extr...

François Picard is pleased to welcome Vitalii Kim, Minister for Veterans Affairs of Ukraine. “If Europe will not support us, we also will fight because it's our motherland,” says Kim, insisting that Ukraine's determination to resist Russian aggression will endure regardless of the outcome of negotiations over European financial assistance. Yet behind this assertion of national resolve lies a more...

François Picard welcomes Igor Mladenovic, a French-Serbian sports writer, sports business analyst and former football commentator based in Luxembourg. For Mladenovic, the backlash in China over Kylian Mbappé's playful reference to a meme depicting him in the likeness of Mao Zedong illustrates a dilemma of the digital age: how a seemingly innocuous anecdote from a football superstar can escalate in...

François Picard welcomes Helena Ivanov, associate research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based foreign policy and national security think tank advocating liberal democracy, strong transatlantic alliances, robust Western defence capabilities and the international promotion of democratic institutions. Ivanov describes the election result in Serbia as a historic turning point in the c...

François Picard welcomes Jean-Rémi Girard, president of the SNALC teachers' union, who places responsibility for France's educational difficulties not simply on demographic change or fiscal constraints, but on years of political decisions that, he argues, have weakened the state education system. Against a backdrop of student protests, budgetary uncertainty and mounting concerns over educational i...

Just before half past four, Marine Le Pen took to the stage under the stadium strobe lights at the Zénith Arena in Orléans. The radical-right leader, whom analysts say is on the doorstep of the presidency, is polarising, yet deeply and increasingly popular with her base, and has topped the popularity polls for months in France. This came 24 hours after the latest protests across the country, which...

A coin-flip election in Brazil, with little separating the country's left-wing President, Lula, and his right-wing rival, Flávio Bolsonaro. The results of the run-off vote will become clear in a few hours. The contenders have traded insults as they cast their votes, with President Lula describing the choice as one between himself and a morally, ethically and personally unqualified candidate. Flávi...

After the French protests turned into riots last weekend, the curfews, and then the alleged racist mass shooting yesterday on the outskirts of Paris, there has been much anxiety, planning and preparation ahead of today's protests. Intelligence reports had predicted up to 500,000 people taking to the streets nationwide, and suggested there were elements of ultra-left agitators plotting online for a...

Ukraine’s access to Starlink and Starshield satellite links has been restored to the speeds it had before restrictions that disrupted front-line operations for more than a week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday. “The speeds are now where they need to be,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that restoration began overnight and was sufficient by Saturday morning, improving front-line...

FRANCE 24's François Picard and Selina Sykes are pleased to welcome New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara as the National Football League (NFL) expands its international reach to Paris. As the Saints prepare to face off with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kamara calls the occasion "an opportunity unlike any other" while reflecting on his remarkable career, his interest in representing his country...

As Israel approaches a consequential parliamentary election amid renewed violence in the occupied West Bank, Yedioth Ahronoth Senior Journalist Ben-Dror Yemini offers a critical assessment of Benjamin Netanyahu's political prospects, the limits of military escalation and the shifting relationship between national security and electoral legitimacy. Since October 7, 2023 "Netanyahu is not popular an...