Perspective

She travelled around the world solo in 87 days, alone on a boat, racing against other sailors across at times turbulent seas and large stretches of being alone. Clarisse Crémer has completed the Vendée Globe, a race that has been called the Everest of the seas. For her first time entering the competition, after six years' training, the 31-year-old says her main goal was simply to complete it – but in doing so she smashed the previous women's record. Having sailed around the world, she says she now feels it's a smaller place.

The history of the US civil rights movement forms the cornerstone for discussions about social and economic inequality in the United States, but a lot less is known about similar fights for social justice in the United Kingdom. Working to change that is Journey to Justice, a British charity than promotes human rights education, with a view to using the lessons from the past to inform activism today. We speak to Tania Aubeelack, one of the organisation's trustees and volunteers.

Where The Light Gets In is one of 23 British restaurants to be awarded the prestigious Michelin Guide's new Green Star for sustainability. We speak to owner and chef Sam Buckley about his "no choice" menu, the joys of eating what's in season, and how to make the most of leftovers. (Clue: a lot of sugar and cinnamon).

Some 28 trillion tonnes of ice have disappeared from the surface of the Earth since 1994: enough to cover the entire surface of the UK to 100 metres thick. That's the stunning conclusion of a new report by scientists. The consequence could be sea level rises of a metre by the end of the century. To put that into perspective, every centimetre of sea level rise displaces around a million people from low-lying homelands. We speak to Professor Andrew Shepherd, director of the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at the University of Leeds, who worked on the report.

Niki Mardas is executive director of the NGO Global Canopy. In its new report "Forest 500", it lists the 500 companies most involved in causing the destruction of the rainforest to produce soy, palm oil, timber or beef. Mardas is urging us all to put pressure on these companies to stop deforestation by rethinking our choices as consumers. The irony being that companies destroy the forest to use land because it is cheap, but in the longer term the destruction of the rainforest will end up costing us all so much more.

As France continues to grapple with how a top academic who allegedly sexually abused his stepson for years was able to act with impunity, we speak to Michael Salter, Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. He says coercive sexual relationships with children were "the dark side of the sexual revolution" and that it's vital to understand that sexual abuse of minors happens across all sectors of society. "Child sexual abuse is a public health crisis," he tells us.

Dara McAnulty is the celebrated 16-year-old author of "Diary of a Young Naturalist", a book that's won praise from poets and environmentalists alike. He speaks to FRANCE 24 about the joys of the natural word, the healing process of writing and his conviction that young people, more than ever, deserve to be heard.

What exactly is "performative allyship" in the context of the ongoing fight for racial justice? And why is "woke washing" so pernicious? We speak to Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu about her new book "This is Why I Resist", which explores the fight for racial equality in a world that often appears indifferent to the suffering and struggles of Black bodies.

January 27 sees Yemen mark the 10th anniversary of an uprising that called for change; for an end to inequality, poverty and corruption. But today, up to 16 million people in Yemen are on the brink of famine. The economy is destroyed, as are schools and hospitals across the country. Jon Cunliffe, the Regional Operations Director for the Middle East at Action Against Hunger, gives us his perspective, telling us that commercial traffic has to be allowed to enter Yemen again and that sanctions on the Houthi rebels must remain suspended.

Earlier this month, a mega-trial got underway in Italy with more than 300 defendants and 900 witnesses, the biggest mafia trial of its kind in decades. The main crime family in question has allegiances with gangs in South America and Albania. We speak to Federico Varese, a professor of criminology and the author of a number of works on the Russian mafia, Soviet criminal history and the globalisation of mafia groups. He shares his perspective on the trial in his homeland and on mafia groups around the world.