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.

Can blatant racism and shameless greed ruin the World Cup? Fans of the beautiful game and its history can take solace in the opening match at Mexico City's storied Azteca Stadium, the only venue to already host two World Cup finals.

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."

Here in France, outrage over the apparent failure to stop the murder of 11-year-old Lyhanna. The suspect – a 41-year-old father of one of her schoolmates – had previously been flagged over suspected paedophile offences but was never questioned. We'll ask what went wrong and examine why a string of child abuse cases is forcing France to confront difficult questions about prevention, accountability and institutional failures.

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 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.

Here's one for free speech absolutists to chew on: What should the French government do when the former head of Russian state television's French-language channel is offered a place of rank on an all-news station with a free-to-air broadcast license and she touts Kremlin propaganda lines with little or no pushback or fact-checking? Introducing Xenia Fedorova, who's just had her 10-year residency permit approved and who's become the darling of far-right shipping magnate-turned-media mogul Vincent Bolloré, the same Bolloré who’s swooped for French TV, radio, print and publishing outlets.

If the first thing Europeans think of when they fill up at the pump is Donald Trump's decision to attack Iran, it's little wonder that previously pro-MAGA populists are quietly distancing themselves from the president of the United States. In fact, Trump actively campaigning for Peter Magyar's rival actually helped Hungary's new conservative prime minister boot out Viktor Orban, his predecessor of 16 years. Magyar is hoping to cash in this week with a deal to unlock more than €10 billion in frozen EU funds.