Perspective

The world will bounce back sharply from coronavirus, but rebuilding the economy and confidence will take time. That's the view of our guest Robin Bew, Managing Director of the Economist Intelligence Unit. He says that in light of the catastrophic situation in India, as long as the threat of new outbreaks remains – for example in Africa – economic uncertainty will continue. He also underlines that the economic crisis caused by the pandemic is "massively larger" than the one sparked by the financial crisis back in 2008.

The book "Paper Bullets" tells the true story of two French lesbian artists, known for their cross-dressing, who took on the Nazis on the Channel island of Jersey. The women left a series of notes all over the island in a bid to undermine the Germans, a move that saw them caught and sentenced to death. The author Jeffrey H. Jackson joined us for Perspective to tell us more about these two incredible women and why he chose to write about them.

"At this point in the Covid-19 pandemic, even the most deluded leaders would struggle to deny that our social, economic and political systems are broken." These were the words of Agnès Callamard, the new secretary general of Amnesty International, as she launched the human rights NGO's annual report on Wednesday.

How happy do you think you are? What even is happiness? And how do you go about measuring it? Students at the University of Bristol in the southwest of England have taken a "science of happiness" course. Evidence suggests that the simple fact of taking the course actually improves the happiness levels of those who take part. We discuss the science of happiness with Professor Bruce Hood, Director of Bristol University's Cognitive Development Centre.

The Palais de la Porte Dorée in eastern Paris was originally built to house the Paris Colonial Exhibition in 1931, but is now home to both a tropical aquarium and the National Museum of the History of Immigration. The site's newly appointed director Pap Ndiaye speaks to us about France's deep-rooted blind spot when it comes to race, how to run a museum when visitors are banned, and his plans to expand the museum's focus to include the history of the transatlantic slave trade.

Rich countries need to share their Covid-19 vaccines evenly amongst the entire global population, or else the coronavirus will never go away. That's the message from the organisation The ONE, which campaigns to end extreme poverty and preventable disease. The NGO has created a series of films called "Pandemica" to highlight the argument that if Covid-19 is not tackled universally, it will continue to mutate and cross borders. We spoke to the deputy director of The ONE in France, Maé Kurkjian.

Xenophobic attacks on Asian Americans have soared in recent months. Activists say it's a result of deep-rooted anti-Asian racism that's been exacerbated by rhetoric blaming China for the Covid-19 pandemic. With Asian Americans still coming to terms with the murder of six Asian women in Atlanta last week by a white gunman, we speak to Viet Thanh Nguyen, the celebrated Vietnamese American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. "More and more of us are being quite vocal about demanding recognition and change," he told FRANCE 24.

Many of us just need to turn on the tap for a seemingly endless supply of clean drinking water. But for swathes of the world's population, such as in rural Africa, the quest to fetch water can take up hours each day. It's not only time-consuming but also a dangerous task, and one which falls disproportionately to women and children. We speak to Christelle Kwizera, founder and managing director of Water Access Rwanda, about her mission to transform the collection, distribution and purification of water in her country.

With the majority of votes counted following Israel's fourth election in less than two years, no clear winner has emerged, possibly paving the way for weeks of political wrangling. This election has seen the Israeli centre ground shift to the right, with even the main anti-Netanyahu bloc comprised of a number of right-wingers. So what were the main issues at stake in this vote? We speak to Amnon Aran, senior lecturer in International Politics at City University in London and author of "Israeli Foreign Policy since the end of the Cold War".

From the Covid-19 pandemic to the migration crisis, from terrorism to Brexit and tensions between the US and Mexico, conflicts around the world all have one thing in common: borders. But are they designed to protect or provoke? Bruno Tertrais, deputy director at the French think tank Foundation for Strategic Research, has studied borders across the globe and put together a book mapping out those dividing lines. He brings us his perspective on the use and abuse of Earth's frontiers.