Author: France 24

Back to homepage / Shows / Perspective Issued on: 05/02/2024 – 12:06 09:25 PERSPECTIVE © FRANCE 24 Almost two years on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of men have already been called up to fight and a new mobilisation bill is due to be debated by parliament this week. According to Anna Colin Lebedev, a senior lecturer at Paris Nanterre University and specialist in contemporary Ukrainian history, one of the major questions facing Ukrainian society today lies in the mechanics of the draft. She sees it as a balancing act between the need to provide able fighters to…

Former President Donald Trump won Nevada’s Republican presidential caucuses Thursday after he was the only major candidate to compete, winning his third straight state as he tries to secure his party’s nomination. Issued on: 09/02/2024 – 05:25Modified: 09/02/2024 – 07:03 3 min Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, his last major rival still in the race, skipped the caucuses even though they are the only contest in Nevada that counts toward the GOP nomination. Haley cited what she considered an unfair process favouring Trump and instead ran in Nevada’s symbolic state-run presidential primary on Tuesday, when she finished behind the “none…

Independent candidates linked to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan were outperforming expectations Friday in early tallies from Pakistan’s election, after a long delay in results added to accusations of poll rigging. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was barred from contesting Thursday’s election as a bloc, but unofficial tallies by local TV channels showed independent candidates — including dozens anointed by his party — leading in the most constituencies.By 9:00 am (0400 GMT) — more than 16 hours after polling stations closed — the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had announced just 13 National Assembly results.Five had gone to independent candidates…

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is expected to secure a fifth consecutive term in presidential elections on February 7. Anita Khachaturova, a specialist in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, talks to FRANCE 24 about what is at stake.  Issued on: 05/02/2024 – 18:07 3 min Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, who has been at the helm of the country for more than 20 years after succeeding his father, is standing for re-election in the February 7 presidential election. The 62-year-old autocrat is hoping to secure a fifth consecutive term as leader of this small, hydrocarbon-rich Caucasus country. It would be his second seven-year term since the country’s 2016 constitutional reform, which extended…

Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the largest in the enclave, receives data from every hospital in the strip. Hospital administrators say they keep records of every wounded person occupying a bed and every body arriving at a morgue. The ministry also collects from other sources including the Palestinian Red Crescent.The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”. The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN…

President Vladimir Putin said in an interview released Thursday with controversial right-wing US journalist Tucker Carlson that the West should understand it is “impossible” to defeat Russia in Ukraine. Issued on: 09/02/2024 – 01:39 2 min In a two-hour interview with the former Fox News host — coming just ahead of the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — Putin also said a deal “can be reached” on imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.”Certain terms being discussed via special services channels,” he said, while insisting that the reporter is a spy — something the Journal and US government…

A long-awaited report cleared President Joe Biden of any wrongdoing in his mishandling of classified documents Thursday but dropped a political bombshell by painting the Democrat as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Issued on: 08/02/2024 – 23:55 3 min The report removed a legal cloud hanging over Biden as he seeks reelection in a contest expected to be against Donald Trump — who is facing a criminal trial for removing large amounts of secret documents after he lost the White House, then refusing to cooperate with investigators.However, in a shock for the Biden campaign, special counsel Robert…

Brazil’s ex-president Jair Bolsonaro surrendered his passport Thursday as police raids targeted him and his inner circle over allegations of orchestrating an invasion of government buildings last year. Issued on: 08/02/2024 – 22:07Modified: 08/02/2024 – 22:08 3 min Federal police said they were carrying out 33 search and seizure operations and executing four arrest warrants in an investigation of a “criminal organization involved in the attempted coup” — a reference to Bolsonaro supporters’ storming of the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court on January 8, 2023.The raids were authorized by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who also ordered that…

Issued on: 08/02/2024 – 20:35 Four months and one day after Hamas’ attack on Israel and even though Gaza’s been flattened, neither side wants to stop.Benjamin Netanyahu pre-empting conciliatory noises by the visiting U-S Secretary of State by announcing months of war ahead with total victory as the sole option.  The head of Israel’s most right-wing government ever helped in his brinkmanship by Hamas itself which after nearly two weeks of truce efforts, has now piled on the demands to a hostage for prisoner exchange deal.Has Qatar been as ineffective with Palestinian militants as the U.S. with Netanyahu? In the Middle…

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday replaced his education minister after a series of controversies, seeking to regain momentum for the final phase of his presidency under Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. Issued on: 08/02/2024 – 20:39Modified: 08/02/2024 – 21:33 3 min Macron reshuffled the cabinet with a tilt to the right on January 11 after naming Attal, 34, as France’s youngest and first openly gay prime minister. One of the key moves was putting former French junior tennis champion Amelie Oudéa-Castéra, already serving as sports minister, in charge of a super ministry comprising both sports and education.But a series of controversies…