Perspective

Beatrice Savadye grew up in a poor mining community in northern Zimbabwe. She experienced gender violence at home: her father told her brother to beat her and her sisters up if they misbehaved. But she decided to take a stand and not accept the status quo. Seven years ago, she started a women's group for Zimbabweans called Roots Africa. It pushes for stronger laws to protect women trapped with abusers from a surge in violence and from HIV infections. She joins us as part of our special coverage to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

It's up to young people to tell world leaders that the world is failing over climate change, "because we know we are". That's the view of our guest, 14-year-old Lavinia Iovino, who this week is taking part in Mock COP26, a youth alternative to the regular round of adult COP conferences which this year was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Some 350 delegates are taking part virtually in the event from 150 different countries. She joined us for Perspective.

The trial of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is so important, partly due to his superstar status here in France. So says Bruno Cautrès, a researcher at CEVIPOF, the political research centre at Sciences Po University in Paris. Sarkozy is set to make history as the first ever former French president to face corruption charges. The 65-year-old is still idolised by many on the right and continues to claims he's being persecuted as he faces a number of different legal cases against him.

News reports of people making clandestine crossings into Europe overwhelmingly depict men. But significant numbers of women also take that same path – and the challenges and stigma they face are often specific to their sex. We speak to Camille Schmoll, author of "Les damnées de la mer", or "The Wretched of the Sea" in English, a book about the rarely-discussed women who choose to risk their lives trying to forge new lives on the other side of the Mediterranean.

Early on in the Covid-19 pandemic, world-renowned cartoonist Chappatte received a call from a doctor he knew in Geneva, who told him the virus was devastating Italy's health system and that it wouldn't be long before it spread to the rest of Europe. As we now know, it soon did, leading to huge loss of life, global lockdowns and ongoing restrictions on our freedoms. An extraordinary few months that Chappatte has chronicled meticulously in his latest graphic novel "Au coeur de la vague". He joined us for Perspective.

The arts and culture sector has been badly hit by Covid-19 around the world, with lockdowns leaving cinemas and theatres closed for many months. When France announced its second nationwide lockdown, its culture minister promised millions in aid to the hard-hit sector. We speak to Tiffany Hofstetter, an actor and co-director of the The Big Funk Company, a Franco-American theatre company in Paris.

In recent weeks, the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia has become a bloody battlefield. Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has launched a military offensive in the region, accusing the Tigray ruling party of trying to destabilise the democracy he wanted to build. Already, the fighting has forced more than 20,000 people to flee their homes for neighbouring Sudan. Adem Abebe, an advisor and commentator on the African Union, gives us his perspective on the situation and on the danger of it spreading beyond Ethiopia's borders and destabilising the wider region.

Last week, the secretary general of South Africa's ruling ANC party was charged with 21 counts of fraud and corruption. Ace Magashule is out on bail awaiting trial that's set to begin in February. He is one of the highest ranking but far from the only member of the ANC to face corruption charges. Former president Jacob Zuma was ousted by party members for the same reason. Dirk Kotze, a professor of political science at the University of South Africa, gives us his Perspective.

France is marking five years since the Paris terrorist attacks of November 13, when 130 people lost their lives in a series of coordinated attacks across the city. We speak with Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc, Founder and President of the French Association for Victims of Terrorism, about how those who survived that terrible night are coping, especially amid a fresh wave of terror attacks in France.

We often hear that young people today shouldn't expect to have just one career in their lives, that the ever-changing job market requires flexibility and an open mind. But it's a message you rarely hear directed at people who are already a bit further along in their professional lives. So why is that? And what are the benefits of trying something new when you're that little bit older? Our guest is Alan Swan, creator of the podcast "Older Not Over".