The Interview

Dr Bernice Albertine King is the youngest daughter of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. She is the CEO of The King Center. FRANCE 24 went to meet her to talk about her father's struggle and the march on Washington 60 years ago, during which Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech on August 28, 1963. Bernice explains that it took courage for her father to make such a speech, as it represented a threat to the existing order. She also reminds us how, in the speech, he gave a global vision of the world in which we could coexist as a family, as a community, in peace, in justice, in freedom and in equality.

Marie-Amélie Le Fur, President of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee, talks to FRANCE 24 and RFI a year ahead of the opening ceremony of the first Paralympic Games to be held in France. The former para-athlete and nine-time Games medalist takes stock of the organisation and the immense challenges still to be met, especially the accessibility to transport and accommodation. On the sporting front, while the situation is improving, there is still a great deal of work to be done. For example, less than 2 percent of French sports clubs welcome para-athletes today.

Niger's exiled Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massoudou said the military junta has no right to prosecute the country's deposed president, Mohamed Bazoum, and called for constitutional order to be restored through negotiations in an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24 and sister radio station RFI.

From infrastructure to security, transport to ticketing, Paris still has a series of challenges ahead before it hosts the world's biggest sporting event from July 26, 2024. One year before the Games begin, FRANCE 24 sat down with Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Organising Committee, who also discussed the importance of the highly awaited opening ceremony on the River Seine.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba condemned Russia's recent strikes on Ukraine's Black Sea ports in the wake of Moscow's withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative. "Russia's objective is to provoke the increase of [a] global food crisis, export its own grain without any hindrances and make as much money as they can," Kuleba said. "But the people of Ukraine and Africa are paying the price." He added: "Russia will fill its pockets to fund [its] war machine, at the expense of Africa”.  

Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, told FRANCE 24 that he had decided to open fresh investigations into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the ongoing fighting in Sudan. He said his office had received numerous reports from many sources of crimes such as destruction of property, executions, killings and rapes.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said that Taiwan welcomed the final communiqué of the NATO summit, which criticised China's "stated ambitions and coercive policies". He stressed that NATO had "stated the truth" and that Taiwan appreciated that NATO was "paying attention" to the threat posed by Beijing in the Indo-Pacific region. Wu also said that Taiwan agreed with the US government's assessment that China's President Xi Jinping had not yet decided whether China would attack Taiwan by 2027. "We see no imminence in the Chinese military actions and war is not unavoidable," Wu said.

On the eve of next week's NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told FRANCE 24 he was confident an agreement could be forged to bring Ukraine closer to NATO. In addition to providing practical support and creating a Ukraine-NATO council, he said that a text was being drafted to chart a way forward for Ukraine's future membership in the Atlantic Alliance.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, the French Minister of State for International Partnerships Chrysoula Zacharopoulou discussed the issue of violence in French society, among its youth as well as whether it exists at the institutional level, following the riots sparked by the police killing of 17-year-old Nahel on June 27. "I don't accept that France is a racist country… I am an example. I was born in Greece. I became French, and President Macron appointed me minister because he promotes diversity, he promotes inclusion." She also expressed her confidence about the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris and underlined the efforts of France to redefine its relationship with Africa.

On July 7, 2021, Haiti's then-president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated by a commando of mercenaries in Port-au-Prince. Two years on, his widow Martine Moïse, who survived the attack, spoke to FRANCE 24 from the Haitian capital. Although several suspects have been arrested over the murder, "the present government seems to be involved" and "things are not going well in Haiti for the investigation", Moïse said. Nevertheless, she insisted that "the truth will come out" eventually.