Perspective

We speak to award-winning British-Canadian photographer Finbarr O'Reilly, who was challenged to work with people in DR Congo to put together an exhibition of their work. The striking pictures, now on display in Paris, show the struggle of coping with the Covid-19 pandemic in DR Congo as people there carried on with their lives as best they could. O'Reilly says the photos show the degree of talent among photographers in DR Congo, adding that it's been a real pleasure to work with them.

To tackle almost all of the world's major issues, the first challenge is to bring peace. Unless the world is peaceful, you can never get the levels of trust and cooperation needed to combat for example climate change, or bring fresh water to all. That's according to Steve Killelea, author of the book "Peace in the Age of Chaos". He also created the Global Peace Index. He spoke to us about his hopes for 2021.

Four and a half years after the UK voted to leave the European Union, both sides have now stepped out into unchartered, post-divorce territory. A last-gasp post-Brexit trade deal means the divorce wasn't perhaps as messy as it might have been – although a lot of questions about the nature of the future relationship remain unanswered. We discuss what's in store for the UK with Andrew Blick, Senior Lecturer in Politics and Contemporary History in the Department of Political Economy at King's College London.

On International Migrants Day, we spoke to Mattea Weihe, a spokesperson for Sea-Watch. She told FRANCE 24 about the unique challenges the German NGO has faced this year, as it works to save migrants making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe.

French museums won't be able to re-open until at least January 7, due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, but a number of French cultural institutions have been rising to the challenge of engaging audiences remotely. FRANCE 24 speaks to the Pompidou Centre's digital strategy director Paul Mourey, about a host of new online experiences the museum has been developing since the start of the pandemic.

From Argentina to Mexico, social unrest across Latin America had been growing until Covid-19 hit. But calls for equality, women's rights, education and access to basic necessities like water were once again overlooked as the immediate risk and challenge of the pandemic took over. Olivier Dabène, a professor of political science at Sciences Po Paris and creator of the web series "Protestas", tells us more about these social movements and where they come from.

After months of talks, negotiators from both sides of the Brexit divide announced some movement on Monday on sticking points that are preventing an agreement on the future relationship between the EU and the UK. Jonathan Portes, a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at King's College London, notes that "deal or no deal", a lot of the changes Brexit brings will come into effect on January 1, including an end to free movement. But he believes that on some issues such as state aid, the UK could actually move closer to the practices currently employed in EU nations.

Five years after the Paris climate agreement was adopted and as economies cope with the financial impact of Covid-19, many are investing in high-carbon activities. Lucie Pinson from Reclaim Finance is one of this year's winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize – for successfully pressuring France's three largest banks to eliminate financing for new coal projects and coal companies. She shares her Perspective on how finance can be used to fight climate change.

The question of what it's like to be Black in America has occupied a key place in this year's reckoning with institutionalised racism in the US. Chad Lassiter, Professor of Race Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, talks to FRANCE 24 about the need to break the cycle of "suspicion and surveillance" of Black bodies and how to amplify the voices of Black role models in society.

"Putin's People", a new book by journalist Catherine Belton, is a forensic examination of the Russian president's inner circle and how their shared experiences in the dying days of the Soviet Union have shaped the modern-day Russian state. The book, filled with insider accounts of Putin's rise to the top, has been described as "fearless". The author speaks to FRANCE 24.