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Picard

Politics

Amid uncertainty over EU aid, Vitalii Kim insists Ukraine has no choice but to fight for motherland

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 complex reality: a country confronting not only the immediate pressures of war, but also its mounting psychological, social and institutional consequences.

World

Mbappé's China faux pas: When the sports world collides with the complexities of geopolitics

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 into a geopolitical firestorm.

Politics

French education reform proposals 'vague': Govt created 'most of the problems' it now seeks to solve

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 public education system. Against a backdrop of student protests, budgetary uncertainty and mounting concerns over educational inequality, Girard contends that the French government faces the formidable task of addressing a crisis largely of its own making.

Politics

'They should be afraid': Serbia's student-led victory over Vučić sends warning to 'corrupt' leaders

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 as a historic turning point in Serbian politics. After 14 years of Aleksandar Vučić's political dominance, the reported electoral victory of a student-led movement represents, more than a challenge to an entrenched political establishment.

World

NFL Paris Premier: The Saints' Alvin Kamara on global reach and sport as an opportunity for youth

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 as "an opportunity unlike any other" while reflecting on his remarkable career, his interest in representing his country in flag football at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, and his ambitions to develop sporting opportunities in Liberia, his parents' country of birth.

Politics

Trump admin 'destroying' US democracy with 'autocratic, terrorist version of Christian nationalism'

François Picard welcomes former US Assistant Secretary of Defense Jim Townsend and former US Air Force officer Michael (Mikey) Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Is American military power becoming an instrument of political and religious coercion, both at home and abroad? From the reported restrictions on Ukraine's access to Starlink satellite communications to the Trump administration's overtures towards Vladimir Putin and the growing controversy over religious ideology within the Pentagon, the two guests offer a stark assessment of the direction o

World

Art crime detective Arthur Brand warns: 'All museums have been, and will be, victims of theft'

François Picard is pleased to welcome art crime detective Arthur Brand. "In the old days they stole a painting, but a painting is unique; you cannot cut it in two," explains Brand, "In the last 10 years they have been targeting more and more objects made of gold, silver". He examines the transformation of international art theft, warning that increasingly sophisticated criminal opportunism is shifting attention from irreplaceable paintings towards precious metals and gemstones that can be dismantled, melted down or dispersed.

World

Oxfam takes France to court over 'tax inequality': 'Problem' with tax system, public service funding

François Picard is pleased to welcome Layla Abdelké Yakoub, Tax Justice and Inequality Advocacy Officer at Oxfam France. "Today in France a billionaire pays less taxes proportionally than a nurse or a firefighter," Yakoub explains. She challenges the foundations of France's fiscal system, arguing that the growing concentration of wealth and preferential tax treatment of the ultra-rich are undermining the constitutional principle of equality before taxation. As Oxfam pursues legal action against the French state, Yakoub describes a widening disconnect between the government's efforts to attract

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World

‘Amazing progress’ in lung cancer: Immunotherapy extends survival as mRNA vaccines offer hope

François Picard is pleased to welcome Siow-Ming Lee, Professor of Medical Oncology at the University College London and a specialist in lung cancer. “Lung cancer is not one cancer. There are many different types of lung cancer,” explains Lee. For decades, lung cancer has been closely associated with smoking, late diagnosis and poor survival prospects. Yet there is a broader revolution in cancer brewing: Medicine advances in molecular oncology, minimally invasive surgery and immunotherapy are fundamentally transforming both the understanding and treatment of the disease, including among patient

World

Digital distrust and polarisation: 'We need to get back to engaging with one another as a society'

François Picard is pleased to welcome Valdemar Osted, partner and head of technology at Danish digital consultancy Common Consultancy. Can the fear of disinformation become as dangerous to democracy as disinformation itself? Osted challenges widely circulated claims that attacks on Russian data centres have triggered a sudden collapse in online engagement among supporters of Donald Trump and Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). Drawing on social media monitoring and research into inauthentic behaviour, Osted reports finding no unusual decline in Facebook interactions following th

World

ISS amid global conflict: A rare bastion of 'scientific collaboration' between the East and West

François Picard is pleased to welcome Alban Guyomarc'h, Researcher in Space Geopolitics at Paris's École Normale Supérieure School of Higher Learning. As a new era of space rivalry unfolds, the International Space Station remains one of the last bastions of cooperation between geopolitical adversaries. For Guyomarc'h, the latest ISS mission is more than a remarkable technological achievement. "It's one of the rare collaboration spaces we still have today in a very conflictual era".

World

Death penalty: Why are executions increasing worldwide?

October 10 marks the World Day Against the Death Penalty. This week, the EU condemned capital punishment as a cruel and degrading form of punishment. But not all world leaders share this view. We discuss why executions are on the rise with our guest François Picard, host of "Death Row Stories".

World

'Great moral courage: The French thought they knew de Gaulle and suddenly realised they didn't'

François Picard is pleased to welcome Julian Jackson, the British historian, author and Emeritus Professor of Modern French History at Queen Mary University of London. His biography of Charles de Gaulle laid the foundation for France's two-part biopic, "De Gaulle: Résistance". And on the heels of that surprise box-office hit, Jackson's book is now available in French as "La Chute : France, 1940". He takes us back to the occupation of Paris and the extraordinary collapse of France in the summer of 1940.

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World

Egypt warned Israel of 'major' Hamas attack: 'No world where Netanyahu's not aware' (Vivian Salama)

François Picard is pleased to welcome Vivian Salama from Washington. An attorney and staff writer at The Atlantic, Salama has reported from more than 85 countries. Her latest investigation takes us back to September 26, 2023. As Israel's national security establishment gathered to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War and one of the country's greatest intelligence failures, Abbas Kamel, then Egypt's intelligence chief, made an exceptionally rare and discreet visit to Israel with a stark warning about the dangerous situation unfolding in Gaza.

World

'Guilty of all charges': Man City at centre of 'biggest scandal in football history', vows to appeal

François Picard is pleased to welcome our sports editor, James Vasina, and Andreas Evargora, sports journalist and commentator. Evargora describes the current Manchester City case as unprecedented in scale: “This is nothing of the scale that we’ve seen before.” The case brings together an explosive mix of pressures confronting modern sport like never before: the multibillion-euro business of football, the legal and regulatory mechanisms designed to govern it, and the increasingly complex relationship between sport, political power and international investment.

Politics

Ian Bremmer: 'We have passed peak Trump in terms of disruption on the global stage'

François Picard is pleased to welcome Ian Bremmer, the American political scientist, author, and founder and president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media. According to Bremmer, we may now be entering the autumn of the "Donroe Doctrine" and the MAGA era: an "America First" isolationist approach in which President Donald Trump envisions a return to "greatness" in Gilded Age fashion. But is this the America voters had envisioned?

World

Trump ‘flips & flops’ with Iran between making a deal and threats to attack in ‘devastating fashion’

François Picard is pleased to welcome Barbara Slavin, Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center. She describes the US-Iran conflict as a dangerous combination of military escalation, diplomatic ambiguity and political calculation. Slavin sees an absence of true diplomacy: The recent indirect contacts between Washington and Tehran, mediated by Qatar, has been too limited and too fragile to produce any serious breakthrough. For her, this amounts to “kabuki diplomacy”: they half engage while positioning themselves against any appearance of compromise.