FRANCE 24's François Picard is pleased to welcome Ulf Laessing, Director of Regional Sahel Programme at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. According to Laessing, we are witnessing in Mali the complete unraveling of a broader geopolitical experiment. Russia stepped into a vacuum left by France, promising stability through force. Instead, its reliance on mercenary brutality, coupled with a shallow understanding of local dynamics, has accelerated the demise of an already fraught collaboration. The fall of Kidal and the coordinated surprise offensives reveal a dramatic shift in the balance of power.

Even if it's a ‘lone wolf’ as first suggested by President Trump, Saturday night’s White House Correspondents Dinner drama certainly did not happen in a vacuum. And just as mass shootings have become commonplace in a United States overrun by firearms so have attempts on the lives of political figures. We’ll ask about the latest targeting of the US president and the echo chambers that amplify vilification and hate, that turn adversaries into enemies, a social media landscape where conspiracy theories can make a better fit than facts both as ideology and a business model.

How to mediate between Iran and the United States when one side wants revenge for the killing of its leader and the other’s erratic messaging seems ratings driven?Donald Trump’s unilateral ceasefire declaration bringing neither side back to the bargaining table, what with more ships seized in Strait of Hormuz and lockdown mode relaxed in Pakistan’s capital, this for talks that may or may not resume. We’ll ask about US demands that can change course inside the same presidential tweet…and an unclear chain of command on both sides: why was the US president flanked by Trump confidantes Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff last time? Does it actually matter that none of those three are trained diplomats or Iran specialists?

François Picard is pleased to welcome Tutu Alicante, international human rights lawyer.and anti-corruption activist. According to Mr. Alicante, the Pope's visit to Equatorial Guinea presents a paradox: it offers a rare opportunity to spotlight injustice, yet risks being appropriated by the regime for its own validation. Could the "global moral authority" inadvertently lend credence to the authoritarian regime? Equatorial Guinea's resources have failed to lift up society and translate into human dignity. Governance remains defined by exclusion, repression, and the erosion of accountability.

François Picard is pleased to welcome Hannah Neumann, German MEP, Greens/EFA and Chair of EU Parliament's Delegation for Iran. She offers analysis on the growing geopolitical instability surrounding Iran, energy security, and the EU’s strategic position in an increasingly fragmented global order. According to Ms. Neumann, the central issue is not merely the volatility of negotiations, but their lack of clarity and coherence. From her vantage point, "the main problem is that they don't even have a clear focus on what they are negotiating about".

Will the world have enough fuel to fill the tank and fertilize the crops? The seizure of ships by Iran adding to global jitters as the extension of a ceasefire offers zero visibility on prospects for the planet’s biggest choke point for oil and gas. Nearly two months on, the Paris-based International Energy Agency is calling it the biggest-ever energy disruption in history. We’ll ask about prices at the pump, cancelled flights, and…more broadly, if oil's not flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, where to find it and what’s the alternative?

François Picard is pleased to welcome Jad Shahrour. Communications Manager at Samir Kassir Foundation. Lebanon is at a geopolitical crossroads, where sovereignty, regional rivalries, and international diplomacy collide. Joining us from Beirut amid ongoing uncertainty, he places current negotiations with Israel within a broader struggle to reassert the authority of the Lebanese state. He emphasises the necessity of disentangling Lebanon’s national decision-making from external actors, while acknowledging the deeply rooted historical tensions that complicate any path toward stability. 

François Picard welcomes Ghassan Salamé, Lebanon's culture minister. Salamé portrays Lebanon as a country that has preserved political pluralism and freedom of expression, and persevered despite decades of conflict. Within this context, he frames negotiation with Israel not as a matter of choice, but of necessity: the only viable path toward stability, dignity and the basic conditions for the Lebanese people to live and thrive.

François Picard is pleased to welcome Tim Bale, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London. According to Professor Bale, Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer appears to have unwittingly misled Parliament, as a consequence of not being not being 'apprised' of Peter Mandelson's failed vetting. 

A container ship seized in the Gulf, a ceasefire deadline that's running out fast and plenty of bargaining table brinkmanship between the U-S and Iran. With the price of oil back on the rise, de-escalation would certainly offer relief to Donald Trump's constitutents. So what's the plan of a U.S. president who’s proved impulsive – at times threatening civilizational erasure, at others floating the idea of splitting the profits with Iran on a Strait of Hormuz toll for tankers? How to bargain when your opponent enjoys home field advantage and knows you don’t want to put boots on the ground?

François Picard is pleased to welcome Irfan Nooruddin, the Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of Indian Politics in the Asian Studies Program in the School of Foreign Service. As a scholar of Indian politics, he approaches institutional reform not as a question of isolated policy change, but as a reconfiguration of incentives within a vast and uneven federal democracy. He examines the interlinked dynamics shaping India’s political future, including the normative promise and practical limits of women’s representation

A new U-S-born Pope on a first-ever visit to Cameroon’s restive English-speaking northwest, and who’s not turning the other cheek: “Blessed are the peacemakers! But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”, Pope Leo declared on Thursday in Bamenda. The message was the same when he landed Wednesday in Yaoundé and while it may sound like a rebuttal to a critical U-S president who’s an ocean away, it's first a pointed message to the leader in the room hosting Leo… 93-year old Paul Biya, only the second head of state Cameroon’s known since independence from France in 1960.