Perspective

The son of the man often described as "Britain's Schindler" has spoken of his pride at what his late father achieved. On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, we spoke to the son of Sir Nicholas Winton, who with his small team is credited with saving the lives of 669 mostly Jewish children on the eve of World War II in what was then Czechoslovakia. His heroism went largely unrecognised for years until a 1980s British television programme, "That's Life", managed to find an entire audience of people whose lives had been saved thanks to Winton, who himself was surprised to discover that every other person there owed their lives to him. His incredible story was recently told in the film "One Life". His son Nick Winton spoke to us in Perspective.

Seven weeks after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Syria still faces uncertainty over its future as the transitional government attempts to bring order to a country wracked by more than 13 years of civil war. But Syrians are also looking to the past and for answers about the fate of loved ones who disappeared under the Assad regime or during the war. FRANCE 24's Oliver Farry speaks to Robert Petit, head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism investigating serious crimes in Syria. The Mechanism was established by the United Nations in December 2016 to investigate crimes committed in the country.

FRANCE 24's Oliver Farry speaks to Amber Massie-Blomfield, the author of "Acts of Resistance: The Power of Art to Create a Better World" – a study of art as a form of political activism – about the challenges for artists to hold strong political positions as the new Trump administration takes power. She also discusses examples of art and resistance throughout history, which she gathered while researching her book.

A long-awaited ceasefire between Hamas and Israel went into force on Sunday, followed by the first exchange of hostages and detainees by the two sides. The ceasefire and the process of releasing the hostages and prisoners will continue over the next three months. It has already caused discontent among far-right members of PM Binyamin Netanyahu's Israeli government, with one minister quitting. But for now, the release of the first hostages has been welcomed in Israel. FRANCE 24's Oliver Farry spoke to Oliver McTernan, the co-founder and director of Forward Thinking, a charity that works on conflict resolution and mediation in the Middle East. He gave his take on the prospects of the ceasefire holding in Gaza. 

Later this Monday, Donald Trump will be inaugurated for the second time as US president. He has already made waves in the weeks before his return to office, threatening a mass deportation of undocumented migrants on day one, tariffs on Canada and Mexico as well as expressing a desire to acquire Greenland. For more on what to expect from Trump's second term, we spoke to Laurie Dundon, a US domestic politics and foreign policy specialist, in Perspective.

A British-Palestinian surgeon who was in Gaza at the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel in October 2023 has spoken of his hope that the ceasefire deal will mean the Palestinian people can begin to rebuild their lives. Ghassan Abu-Sittah worked for a month and a half in the Gaza Strip trying to deal with 500 wounded people every single day, in a hospital designed to have just 600 beds. He said the situation was akin to being trapped by a "tsunami" of dead and wounded. He spoke to us in Perspective.

French former hostage Louis Arnaud shared his two-year ordeal in Iran's Evin Prison in an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24's Stuart Norval. Arnaud, a banking consultant, had been sentenced to five years in jail on national security charges after being arrested in September 2022 while travelling through Iran. He was kept in solitary confinement for large periods. "Everything is done so that you are deprived of your humanity," Arnaud told us in his first interview since his release in June 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron is now urging Tehran to free three other French nationals "without delay".

One of the world’s leading advocates for people with mental health issues has spoken to FRANCE 24 about her own struggles and how she's been able to turn them around to help others. Amid an abusive relationship and an undiagnosed bipolar disorder, Hauwa Ojeifo attempted suicide but then began to write about her situation in a blog entitled "She Writes Woman". The blog has since become a website and an entire organisation helping people in her home country of Nigeria and across the world. She spoke to us from Abuja in Perspective.

An award-winning director has told FRANCE 24 about his short film that uncovers the world of a remarkable young woman and her family's journey to understand it. Makayla is a teenage girl living with a rare form of autism that has rendered her essentially nonverbal. But thanks to a simple technique, she has begun to communicate for the first time. The story is captured in the film "Makayla's Voice: A Letter to the World". Filmmaker Julio Palacio spoke to us in Perspective.

Talks resume this Monday in Geneva between Iran and the UK, France and Germany over Tehran's nuclear programme. The discussions are a continuation of ones held last month and come ahead of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump next week. The talks are described by all sides as "consultations" rather than "negotiations", but France's foreign ministry says they intend to work towards a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear programme, the progress of which it calls extremely problematic. In Perspective, FRANCE 24's Oliver Farry spoke to Lukasz Kulesa, Director of Proliferation and Nuclear Policy at the Royal United Services Institute.