Week in Review: Plastic pollution in Indonesia, Palestinians and Israelis unite for olive harvests and French hospital workers on strike
Issued on:
FRANCE 24 meets two Indonesian sisters who are fighting plastic pollution; Palestinians and Israelis unite in the West Bank for the olive harvesting season; the continuing debate over the Muslim headscarf in France; and our film critic tells us why Roman Polanski’s take on the Dreyfus affair is likely to be her film of the year.
ARTICLES
French hospital workers take to the streets over lack of resources, manpower
French hospital workers carry on their industrial action with another major strike in Paris on Thursday. They are demanding more resources and manpower while the government is fine-tuning a long-awaited financial support plan.
Venice underwater: Mayor estimates damage at hundreds of millions of euros
Venice is struggling with the worst floods seen in half a century as the city's mayor estimated the damage caused so far to be in the hundreds of millions of euros.
Turkey looking to exploit European divisions on repatriation of jihadists
A highly publicised move to repatriate foreign Islamic State (IS) group fighters reflects the obstacles Turkey has encountered in its Syrian military offensive – and its eagerness to exploit potential divides between European members.
Challenge to Catalonia: Spain’s fractures play into the hands of far-right upstarts
The violent stand-off over Catalonia’s independence drive has fostered a new far-right surge in Spain’s latest general election – and exacerbated the gulf between Spanish nationalists and regional separatists.
EXCLUSIVE VIDEOS
Drones add new scale to Libya’s battle for Tripoli
Despite a UN arms embargo on Libya, a FRANCE 24 team in Tripoli found fighters on edge, listening for the hum of unmanned drones amid growing signs of foreign-supplied arms being used in the battle for the Libyan capital.
Libyan lives overturned as civilians bear the brunt of the battle for Tripoli
In the second of FRANCE 24’s exclusive reports from Libya, Catherine Norris Trent, Julie Dungelhoeff and Abdallah Malkawi report on the devastating impact of the latest war on civilians in the capital, Tripoli.
‘I don’t want to go back to Libya,’ plead migrants trying to flee
In the third of FRANCE 24’s special reports from Libya, Catherine Norris Trent, Julie Dungelhoeff and Abdallah Malkawi expose the horrors suffered by migrants intercepted by Libyan authorities in the Mediterranean Sea and dispatched back to overcrowded Libyan detention centres.
Inside Libya's notorious Gernada prison, home to radical Islamists
In the fourth of FRANCE 24’s special reports from Libya, Eric de Laverne and Wissam Charaf take us on a tour inside the notorious Gernada prison.
The role of art in the reconstruction of war-torn Libya
In the fifth of FRANCE 24’s special reports from Libya, Eric de Laverne and Wissam Charaf explore the cultural reconstruction in the eastern city of Benghazi and ask if art can help to restore unity in this divided land.
TV SHOWS ONLINE
Riyad al-Maliki: 'We are not having elections in Palestine, without having any in East Jerusalem'
Riyad al-Maliki, the Palestinian Authority's foreign affairs minister, spoke to FRANCE 24 about Palestinian elections in February and the popular uprisings currently sweeping through countries in the Middle East, including in Lebanon and Iraq. Al-Maliki also spoke of a potential successor to PA leader Mahmoud Abbas and shared his thoughts on the stalled peace process.
The fall of the Berlin wall: Closing the gap between mothers in the East and West
As the world marks 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, we report on working mothers. Then we turn to Canada, where hundreds of indigenous women have been murdered or who've gone missing since 1980. We talk to British journalist and author, Joanna Jolly, about her book on the one killing that finally galvanised the nation. Plus, Madrid's Prado Museum celebrates the work of two of the most renowned female artists of the Renaissance.
Film show: 'An Officer and a Spy', 'Ford v Ferrari' and 'Cannes 1939'
Film critic Lisa Nesselson tells us why Roman Polanski’s take on the explosive Dreyfus case is likely to be her film of the year: The veteran director won the Silver Lion in Venice for his telling of the anti-Semitic affair that shook French society at the turn of the 20th century. Yet debate over Polanski’s private life and dealings with the US justice system has overshadowed the release of the film.
Franco-British pop group ALEXANDR on their new album
Based just outside of Paris, ALEXANDR is a band whose three members share a mixed French and English heritage. Their latest EP "Surrender" features sounds reminiscent of Brit Pop / northern English bands and was recorded in Paris's famous Motorbass studios (once owned by Philippe Philippe Zdar of Cassius).They spoke to Marjorie Hache about their new album and how they identify with both sides of the Channel when on tour. We also check out new album releases by Celine Dion, psych-Kraut rockers TOY and DJ Shadow.
TV Series: 'The Crown', 'Jack Ryan', Disney and Apple launch streaming services
The series market just got a whole lot bigger: Dheepthika Laurent tells gives us her take on the début shows from Apple TV+ and Disney+ as they compete for an audience well versed in Netflix and Amazon blockbusters. We also check out Season 3 of “The Crown” as Olivia Coleman takes over from Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II: the Netflix hit has moved on to a more modern phase of the monarch’s reign, sparking some controversy in the process. And Amazon releases a new series of “Jack Ryan” with the action hero getting stuck into some highly topical political intrigue.
Germany’s climate-stressed forests
Across Germany, an alarming number of trees are falling ill and dying. Over the past two years, 180,000 hectares of forest have disappeared, linked to extreme weather events and the proliferation of an aggressively spreading bark beetle.
Despite attacks by settlers, Palestinians and Israelis join forces for olive harvest
In the West Bank, the olive harvesting season has often been synonymous with violence. Some extremist Israeli settlers set olive groves ablaze and resort to physical attacks instead of letting Palestinian farmers harvest their fields. But every year for the past two decades, other groups of Israeli citizens have been helping Palestinians with the olive harvest. Among them are rabbis who still believe in the olive as a symbol of peace.
Fighting plastic pollution: The inspiring story of two Indonesian sisters
We speak to Melati Wijsen, an 18-year-old from Bali who five years ago launched an NGO called "Bye Bye Plastic Bags” with her younger sister Isabel, with the aim of dramatically reducing the number of single-use bags. This year they fulfilled their goal of having the bags banned on their own island of Bali, and they now hope to turn it into a youth movement.
“It can be discouraging to see a list of the projects where we’re trying to save lives, but we also see the lives of those preserved thanks to our humanitarian assistance,” said the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, as he prepared to speak at the Paris Peace Forum.
Matthieu Ricard: Monk, activist and photographer
In this edition of Perspective, we speak to Buddhist monk, author and photographer Matthieu Ricard about "Wonderment", his latest book of nature photographs. He hopes his beautiful images, taken around the globe, will galvanise people - and policymakers - into protecting the future of the planet.
The Muslim headscarf: France's Republican dilemma
A touchy issue that has once again made headlines in France: the Muslim headscarf. The headscarf returned to the spotlight after footage spread online of a far-right official angrily opposing the presence of woman wearing a headscarf at a regional council meeting. The woman in question was chaperoning her son’s class during a school trip. The chaos that ensued has sparked a heated debate on islamophobia, women’s rights, sectarianism, inclusivity and the rule of law.
Fashion 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall
In fashion terms, Paris is a synonym for haute couture, London is a byword for extravagance, and Milan and New York are where business deals happen. So what about Berlin, 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall? The separation of East and West drew a wedge between friends and family, while reunification came with its own host of challenges. It’s a historical context that helped Berlin become a hotbed of countercultural expression. But three decades after the fall of the Wall, is that still the case?
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