The Interview

In an interview with FRANCE 24, leading Venezuelan opposition figure Leopoldo Lopez explains how he left Venezuela for Spain last month to be "more effective in our fight against the dictatorship from exile". According to him, President Nicolas Maduro is still in power "because he's a brutal dictator" and "the head of a criminal enterprise". Lopez calls for international sanctions – in particular from European countries such as France – to be imposed on Maduro and other top officials.

In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, Ethiopian Finance Minister Ahmed Shide discussed the government's ongoing military offensive against the northern Tigray region and its capital Mekele. Shide said government forces had "liberated" significant areas of the region and that military operations "will be completed soon".

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Leon Panetta, a former US Secretary of Defense and former CIA director, discussed President Donald Trump's refusal to concede the presidential race to Joe Biden, a situation the US had never experienced. He added that Trump, who has 'operated by chaos for the last four years', is now making sure that the last few weeks of his administration 'are also chaotic'. Yet however long the current president 'will resist reality', Panetta said that he hopes 'the combination of the Republican leadership and the Congress' will finally persuade Trump that 'it is over'.

In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, Noubar Afeyan, the co-founder and chairman of Moderna, discussed his biotech firm's Covid-19 vaccine, which clinical trials show is 94.5% effective. The Lebanese-American entrepreneur assured that the vaccine is safe, saying it had been created "rapidly but thoroughly". He also revealed that it can remain stable in the refrigerator for "up to 30 days". Afeyan explained that in addition to Moderna's, vaccines from other pharmaceutical companies will be needed so that "we can in 2021 vaccinate as much of the population as wants to be vaccinated".

In an interview with FRANCE 24, the UN's Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis lamented the absence of a functioning government in the country despite promises by the main political parties to form one quickly in the aftermath of the deadly August 4 Beirut blast. Kubis said he hoped a government would be formed "within days, definitely not weeks".

Alia al-Hathloul is the sister of Loujain al-Hathloul, a Saudi women's rights activist who has been in jail for more than two years without trial. In an interview with FRANCE 24, Alia al-Hathloul said she was "very worried" about the worsening health of her sister, who began a hunger strike on October 26. With Saudi Arabia poised to host a virtual G20 summit from Saturday, Hathloul appealed to the Saudi authorities to release her sister.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet has already made his childhood dream come true and will soon relive it again. In the spring of 2021, he will return to space on board SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, headed for the International Space Station (ISS). In an interview with FRANCE 24, Pesquet told us more about his mission. He also reacted to the historic launch of the same Crew Dragon capsule from Florida on a flight to the ISS with four astronauts on board. Sunday's launch is NASA's first fully fledged mission sending a crew into orbit on board a privately owned spacecraft.

Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, granted an interview to FRANCE 24 during the third edition of the Paris Peace Forum, which is being held virtually this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Amid high hopes for a vaccine against coronavirus, Gates warned against "vaccine nationalism" and explained that a global initiative known as the ACT-Accelerator aims to "get vaccines out to everybody around the world at affordable prices".

Retired US lieutenant general H.R. McMaster served as national security advisor to President Donald Trump from March 2017 to April 2018. In an interview with FRANCE 24, he condemned Trump's refusal to concede defeat to Joe Biden but said the US "shouldn't worry about" Trump clinging to power. However, he said the US president "should make clear that our elections are secure, which they are".

Armenia's President Armen Sarkissian spoke to FRANCE 24 from the capital Yerevan, as the conflict between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh continues to claim civilian lives. Sarkissian accused Azerbaijan of having "started a war" and violating the two recent ceasefires. He also claimed that Turkey "has a completely destructive role" in the conflict and "has added a new dimension to this which doesn't have anything to do with" the aspirations of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.