October 9th, 2021 was the 40th anniversary of France’s abolition of the death penalty. To mark the occasion, President Emmanuel Macron announced the organisation of a “high-level meeting” at the United Nations starting in early 2022. The meeting’s goal? To “convince” leaders of countries that still use the death penalty of the “urgency of abolishing it”. Robert Badinter, who served as France’s justice minister 40 years ago when the death penalty was abolished, continues to fight for the universal abolition of capital punishment. He speaks to FRANCE 24.

In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo discusses why he set up a new political movement after his old party, the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), "lost its identity". Despite previously saying that he wanted to step back from politics, Gbagbo told FRANCE 24 that he hasn't ruled out running in the country's 2025 presidential elections and is firmly against a proposal that would disqualify presidential candidates who are more than 75 years old.

FRANCE 24 spoke to this year's joint Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, co-founder of the digital media company Rappler and an outspoken critic of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Asked whether journalism is becoming more dangerous around the world, she told FRANCE 24: "It is more dangerous, it requires more sacrifices, just to do what journalists have always done."

In an interview with FRANCE 24, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai insisted the country was not in a new Cold War with China despite lingering tensions over trade. She also stressed that the US was keen to repair ties with France and Europe after a recent Australian submarine dispute, which led to the first-ever recall of a French ambassador to the United States.

FRANCE 24 spoke to Fawzia Koofi, who was Afghanistan's first female deputy speaker of parliament. She was also part of the negotiating team representing the previous Afghan government that met with the Taliban in Doha. She believes the Taliban were never actually "meaningful" or "serious" about what they promised on women's rights during the negotiations: she says they just wanted to obtain the withdrawal of US troops. But Koofi believes the country's new rulers will have "no choice" but to work with women.

FRANCE 24 spoke to Ali Maisam Nazary, head of foreign relations for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), an anti-Taliban military alliance which recently set up a parallel government in response to the Taliban taking power. Nazary claimed that the country's new rulers "are not victorious" in Afghanistan's north-eastern Panjshir region, that the "resistance is continuing" and that the NRF actually controls "more than half" of Panjshir, despite Taliban "propaganda" to the contrary.

Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh spoke to FRANCE 24 on the sidelines of the Normandy World Peace Forum. The diplomat reiterated that Tehran was ready to resume talks with world powers on Iran's nuclear programme soon, but cautioned that "details" and "issues" needed to be reviewed beforehand. The biggest issue, in his view, is the removal of the "800 new unilateral and illegal" sanctions imposed on Iran after Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the nuclear deal back in May 2018.

Exactly one year after the start of the 44-day war between Azerbaijan and Armenia for the control of the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev granted an exclusive interview to FRANCE 24 from the capital Baku. Aliyev said Azerbaijan was ready to "work on a future peace agreement" with Armenia, but warned that any move by Yerevan to reclaim territory lost in last year's war would be met with a fierce response by his country.

Costa Rica abolished its army back in 1948, and 99 percent of its energy is renewable. The small country is an exception in Latin America. Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada sat down for an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24. Ahead of November's COP26 conference in Glasgow, he laid out several concrete proposals to fight climate change and sounded the alarm, saying: "The biggest challenge of this generation is decarbonisation and fighting climate change."

Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has slammed the ongoing submarine dispute with France as a "foreign policy and national security debacle" for his country. Rudd told FRANCE 24 that France had "every right to be angry" over the sudden loss of a multibillion-euro submarine contract with Australia, after Canberra chose to buy US nuclear submarines instead. He also called for a parliamentary probe into the decision by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.