Teenagers in France have been blockading their schools and demonstrating since last week to protest a string of grievances. Standing in front of the Lycée Hélène Boucher, FRANCE 24 journalist Antonia Kerrigan said students there said there were "class sizes of more than 36 people". Click on the video for more. 

British police said on Monday that five men arrested near an air base used by the United States were released on bail, as officers probed whether a "foreign state" could be involved in a suspected bomb plot. Speaking with FRANCE 24's Monte Francis, Yan Saint-Pierre, CEO of Modern Security Consulting Group, explains that many of the hybrid warfare cases seen recently "involve local nationals, this is not about exporting terror", adding that foreign actors aim to have "as many layers as possible to complicate any investigation and accurate denunciation of culprits".

Russian drones struck Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences in the historic heart of Kyiv on Monday, in the latest deadly daytime attack on the capital. Volodymyr Zelensky has long been pleading with Ukraine’s allies for more military aid to fend off Russia. But Ukrainian weapons producers say the country could be bringing in significant revenue of its own, if only they were allowed to export their products. FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg reports from Kyiv.

Eve Irvine is pleased to welcome award-winning author Rob Franklin, joining us to discuss Great Black Hope, his acclaimed debut novel exploring race, class, respectability and belonging. Franklin wanted to write about the worlds he had spent years observing since childhood: including how class and race shape even our most intimate relationships.  At its centre is David Smith, a young Black man from a Southern bourgeois family. His education, manners and connections give him access, but he is constantly aware of the possibility of being cast out. That tension led him to think about respectability politics and the psychological cost of constantly performing an acceptable version of oneself. 

Tensions are running high in Northern Ireland after the High Court in Belfast approved a controversial parade. Around 2,000 protesters have blocked the route into a Catholic area where the Protestant march was due to pass. It is the first time in nearly 30 years that the Orange Order has been allowed to march along this route, which was a notorious flashpoint before the 1998 Good Friday Agreement largely brought an end to the bloodshed of the Troubles. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has appealed for calm on all sides, saying he does not want to see Northern Ireland “go backwards.”

Les électeurs suisses décideront dimanche s'ils ⁠approuvent ou non ​une définition plus stricte de leur neutralité, qui empêcherait notamment leur pays d'imposer des sanctions économiques ou de coopérer avec ​l'OTAN.

A court in Northern Ireland has allowed a Protestant parade to proceed through a controversial route in a Catholic area for the first time in nearly 30 years. The legal dispute ended in the early hours of Sunday, with counterprotests now underway and police working to keep marchers and protesters apart. The Drumcree parade dispute dates back to the mid-1990s, when tensions over the route led to riots, roadblocks and murders, threatening Northern Ireland’s peace process. Hervé Amoric reports from Portadown.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Friday signed an order banning fixed-odds betting just over a week ahead of the first round of the presidential election, in a move he said was designed to tackle the pervasive problem of families falling into debt.

President Donald Trump rolled out an unusually lavish welcome for Chinese President Xi Jinping, praising their personal friendship throughout a White House state dinner and other ceremonial events. While both leaders said they held frank discussions behind closed doors, the visit produced no major breakthroughs, prompting criticism from Democratic lawmakers who argued the pageantry overshadowed pressing issues including Iran, Taiwan, AI and trade.

Erin Ogunkeye is pleased to welcome Henrietta Levin, Senior Fellow with the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The US remains a powerful actor in its relationship with China. But power on paper is not the same thing as leverage at the negotiating table. Levin warns that President Trump’s highly personalized approach to Xi Jinping offers Beijing opportunities that China can easily exploit. Xi does not approach the relationship in the same way. Au contraire, he sees the United States as an adversary to be managed while China pursues its domestic priorities and strategic objectives in Asia, including on Taiwan. 

🇺🇸 🇨🇳 As Donald #Trump welcomed his Chinese counterpart Xi #Jinping for a state visit on the tarmac of an airport near #Washington, the sound of a fighter jet during the military ceremony caught the US president off guard, prompting a series of startled facial expressions.

Eve Irvine is pleased to welcome Dimitry Elias Léger, journalist and author of "Death of the Soccer God". He begins with an extraordinary but largely forgotten moment in sporting history: the Haitian-born Joe Gaetjens scoring the goal that gave the US its famous victory over England at the 1950 World Cup. But Léger is less interested in reconstructing Gaetjens’s biography than in using the football star's journey as a " jumping point" to examining diaspora, fame, mortality and moral responsibility. Success offers neither immunity from history nor escape from mortality: as he puts it, “You could be super famous and end up on death row” or die wealthy in your own bed: “Either way, you’re going to die.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to address the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, as US President Donald Trump pushes for an end to Russia’s war and Kyiv seeks to shape renewed diplomatic efforts after more than four and a half years of conflict. France 24 International affairs commentator Douglas Herbert shares further details.

Russia hammered Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, with drones in daylight attacks on Wednesday, killing two people and wounding 23, just hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to address world leaders at the UN General Assembly. Zelenskyy met US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, as Trump has expressed frustration over the lack of progress in talks aimed at ending the war and the continued escalation of aerial attacks by both sides. Emerald Maxwell reports.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has hit back at US President Donald Trump’s speech in his address to the UN General Assembly. He opened by showing images of Iranian civilians killed in US strikes, saying they demonstrated the impact of US and Israeli military action against Iran. During his speech, the US delegation walked out of the General Assembly hall. France 24 International Affairs Editor Kethevane Gorjestani has more.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is speaking before the UN General Assembly Wednesday in his first speech at the world body since the US and Israel launched the conflict with his country. His address comes a day after US President Donald Trump told the UNGA he could "annihilate the Islamic Republic" and "drive them into hell".

AI leaders are due to brief the UN Security Council at an emergency session later today. The meeting comes after weeks of warnings about the potentially uncontrollable risks posed by artificial intelligence. Delano D’Souza reports.

The US-China trade war has hit exports ranging from soybeans to solar panels, but one industry appears to be weathering the tariffs remarkably well. As Donald Trump and Xi Jinping prepare to meet in Washington this week, big-ticket exports are likely to be high on the agenda. But Chinese beauty products such as wigs, hair extensions and false eyelashes have proved highly resilient, with low prices and strong demand encouraging consumers to absorb the extra costs. China’s press-on nail industry, concentrated largely in one city, is also coming through the trade war without a scratch. Bryan Quinn

Hurricane Polo has strengthened into one of the most powerful Pacific cyclones in decades and is expected to skirt Mexico’s southwestern coast as a Category 5 storm. The Miami-based National Hurricane Center described Polo as an “extremely dangerous” storm, with maximum sustained winds of 165 miles per hour.

The day began with Donald Trump threatening to annihilate Iran but ended with a three-hour meeting between US and Iranian mediators, which Trump described as “very good.” Trump also held a high-level meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with both sides saying they wanted the war in Ukraine to end before winter. Today, as the UN General Assembly continues, Zelensky and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are among those expected to address the assembly, as world leaders seek ways to end the two conflicts dominating international politics. France 24 International Affairs Editor Kethevane Gorjestani shares further insights.