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'Military force unable to solve Mali crisis': Is political solution only 'viable path forward'?

1 May 2026 at 06:36
As Mali's junta mourns the death of Defence Minister General Sadio CamaraIn, with thousands coming out to pay tribute, FRANCE 24's François Picard welcomes Paul Melly, Consulting Fellow for the Africa Programme at Chatham House and expert on the Sahel region. He offers a sobering assessment of Mali’s deepening crisis, framing current events within both historical precedent and a radically altered geopolitical landscape. While echoes of the 2012 Mali crisis are unmistakable, "are we in the same situation as in 2012 when the French military had to swoop in to save Mali's capital from being overrun by insurgents?" asks François Picard.

Opening Hormuz 'not a humanitarian gesture': Essential to keeping global food system operating

1 May 2026 at 06:15
Amid geopolitical volatility and economic fragility, François Picard is pleased to welcome John W.H. Denton, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Denton is warning that "the Strait of Hormuz is about much more than oil and gas": We are drifting toward a food security crisis of global proportions. While headlines fixate on oil and conflict, Denton insists that “the sharpest issue at the moment is actually the deterioration of access to fertilizer”, a development he links directly to “cataclysmic risk” for global food systems.

Conference League: Strasbourg on the brink after defeat against Rayo Vallecano

1 May 2026 at 05:38
Strasbourg lost 1-0 away to Rayo Vallecano in the first leg of their Conference League semi-final. Below their usual standard, the French side limited the damage to a single-goal deficit, keeping their hopes alive ahead of the return leg at the Stade de la Meinau next Thursday.

‘Public health time bomb’: How France allowed cadmium to poison its crops and soil

1 May 2026 at 05:18
French residents are three to four times more likely to register unsafe levels of cadmium in their bodies than their European counterparts, ingesting dangerous amounts of the carcinogenic metal through the food they eat. Experts blame government inaction, farming practices and a historic reliance on North African phosphate-based fertilisers that is rooted in the colonial era. 

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