The British prime minister is once again fighting for his political survival, on the back foot after his defence secretary and defence minister quit the government over complaints of a lack of military spending and sufficient commitment to keep Britain safe from the spectre of Russian attack.
François Picard is pleased to welcome Professor Peter Shirlow, Director of the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool. Northern Ireland is once again confronting scenes of unrest, violence and anti-migrant attacks. Shirlow frames the violence within a wider European and global context. He argues that today's far-right mobilisations are no longer isolated local phenomena but are increasingly interconnected through digital networks, transnational misinformation campaigns and social media platforms that facilitate the rapid circulation of extremist narratives.
François Picard is pleased to welcome Antoni Vives, former deputy mayor of Barcelona in charge of urban planning. According to Vives, the Sagrada Família is not simply an architectural masterpiece. It is a living demonstration of how authenticity, rootedness and transcendence can converge in a single human project. Its significance lies not only in its extraordinary design, but in its ability to connect the local with the universal, the contemporary with the eternal, and nature with all that's sacred.
François Picard is pleased to welcome Professor Peter Shirlow, Director of the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool. Northern Ireland is once again confronting scenes of unrest, violence, and anti-migrant attacks. Shirlow frames the violence within a wider European and global context. He argues that today's far-right mobilisations are no longer isolated local phenomena but are increasingly interconnected through digital networks, transnational misinformation campaigns, and social media platforms that facilitate the rapid circulation of extremist narratives.
François Picard is pleased to welcome Avi Meyerstein, co-founder and president of the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP). At a moment when international attention is increasingly consumed by conflict across the Middle East, Meyer argues that the crises currently unfolding are not isolated events but manifestations of unresolved political conflicts that have been left to fester for decades. "While those things remain unresolved," he observes, any semblance of stability "is just an illusion."
François Picard is pleased to welcome Ulrike Franke, Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. According to Franke, the project's demise was "not a surprise to anybody." While acknowledging that Dassault was often perceived as "quite difficult to deal with," she argues that the deeper problem lay in a structural design flaw that brought together industrial rivals who "never really had the incentive to properly work together."
François Picard is pleased to welcome Ulrike Franke, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. According to Franke, the demise of the Franco-German FCAS fighter jet project was "not a surprise to anybody". While acknowledging that Dassault was often perceived as "quite difficult to deal with," she argues that the deeper problem lay in a structural design flaw that brought together industrial rivals who "never really had the incentive to properly work together".
François Picard is pleased to welcome Solène Podevin-Favre, president of the "Face à l'inceste" advocacy and support group and former co-director of the Ciivise, an independent commission set up in 2021 to come up with proposals to fight sexual abuse of children in France. According to Podevin-Favre, the murder of 11-year-old Lyhanna is not an isolated tragedy. It is a "systemic failure" that has been repeatedly identified, documented and reported for years.
Massimo Faggioli is a Church Historian and Professor in Historical and Contemporary Ecclesiology at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin. He tells us more about Pope Leo XIV's visit to Spain.
Taline Papazian is a French-Armenian political scientist and strategic affairs analyst covering Armenia and the South Caucasus. She is also director of the Armenia Peace Initiative Think Tank. She tell us more about what's at stake in Armenia's parliamentary elections.
"Enough is enough" were the words of Gezim Selimi, a retired teacher in Pristina as he cast his ballot this Sunday in Kosovo's snap elections. He was one of a handful of voters questioned by journalists about what it was like to be going to the polls again in Kosovo.
As NATO holds a naval exercise in the Baltic Sea, we speak to former Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves on how he dealt with Russian leader Vladimir Putin during his decade in office.
Controversy is growing over plans by US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner to build a luxury resort in a nature reserve in Albania. For more, we speak to Erisa Kryeziu, an Albanian journalist for the independent media outlet Citizens.al. She's reported on the protests against the construction activity.
François Picard is pleased to welcome Gabriel Oddone, economist, professor and Uruguay's Minister of Economy and Finance. He offers a striking defence of the social democratic model at a moment when much of Latin America appears to be embracing hard-right socio-political and economic policies.
As Colombians head to the polls, FRANCE 24's Gavin Lee speaks to The Economist's Latin America Correspondent Kinley Salmon about what's at stake for Colombia, whether a hard-right populist who calls himself "The Tiger" could become president and why security is still the main worry for voters there.
The Wall Street Journal's award-winning chief European political correspondent Bojan Pancevski speaks to FRANCE 24's Gavin Lee about the anti-ageing efforts Russian President Vladimir Putin is undertaking and Russia's $26 billion, state-backed programme for longevity.
A massive structure on the lawn of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has been nicknamed "The Claw" because of its 90-foot-tall steel arches. It currently dwarfs the US president's residence and consists of camera rigs, a lighting grid, and an overhead canopy in case of rain.
It was 2am when the explosion hit: a Russian drone smashing into the tenth floor of an apartment block in the Romanian town of Galati, just 11 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. Romania scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and a military helicopter, while emergency alerts were sent to residents across the affected region. Two people were injured and the apartment building was swiftly evacuated. The incident has sparked condemnation across NATO capitals and raised fresh concerns about the growing risks along the alliance's eastern flank.