What does this celebration really mean? Is it about 1776 and the birth of a nation, or remembering 250 years of events that shaped a common present? Perhaps it is a celebration of the world’s premier superpower that won the Cold War, has dominated trade and finance and gave the world so much music, movies and literature? At a time when the current president is loosening traditional alliances, where global admiration for democracy in America is plummeting, we look at why the US seems to have changed so suddenly – and so much.

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Tehran can boast of a growing list of foreign dignitaries – a show of strength for a regime that's rebounded since Khamenei was killed on the very first day of the war. His funeral is certainly intended as a victory lap for a leadership that's always revered martyrdom. But does that mask the reality that the Iran war has resulted, according to some, in a lose-lose situation? And with Khamenei's son and successor yet to show signs of life, who really is in charge?

Are we also witnessing the funeral of a theocracy, replaced instead with a military dictatorship? More broadly, how will the masters of Tehran deal both with a region that's working on how to bypass its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and a population that still has to grapple with corruption, rampant inflation and the cruel legacy of the New Year's crackdown on protests that left untold numbers dead or imprisoned?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Riham Mahir, Charles Wente.

A Ukrainian offensive still seems like a pipe dream. Instead, is the current pressure a way to force concessions out of a Kremlin forced to admit what's all over Russian social media: that petrol stations across Russia are running on empty because of those long-range strikes? Will Vladimir Putin compromise or double down?

And what do Crimeans themselves want? Most seemed happy to vote yes in a referendum to rejoin a Russia they only left in 1954. More broadly, what consequences for the entire Black Sea region, which since 2022 has alternated between periods of war, disruption and mutually agreed calm to allow both sides to ship goods? The Black Sea is of course shared with Turkey, which hosts next week's timely NATO summit. 

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

In this edition, we ask how best the international community can help Venezuela and take a look at the dozens of US forces airlifting in supplies and helping coordinate air traffic – an unexpected turnaround as Washington was once the sworn enemy of Caracas. But US President Donald Trump has claimed the locals are "dancing in the streets" now that he’s removed former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and the oil’s flowing his way. If this is truly a turning point, then what kind of turning point is it?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Riham Mahir and Charles Wente.

On that score, some still stick to Trump whispering, like the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who before a show-and-tell display of flattery in the Oval Office told Fox News that Italy had allowed "500 US planes" to take off from bases as part of Operation Epic Fury.

We ask if the Italian prime minister lied about her refusal to actively take part in the campaign against Iran and, more broadly, about Meloni's tack towards the pro-EU mainstream – patching up sometimes testy relations with neighbour France and getting a red carpet welcome this Thursday from Emmanuel Macron at an overdue bilateral summit in the French Riviera town of Antibes.

Why the shift? Is it the end of the whole of the European far-right's MAGA envy? Remember that 2027 is an election year in both France and Italy.

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Piera Rocco, Riham Mahir, Charles Wente.

From no-bid contracts and allegations of fraudulent sales of land, to the diplomatic row sparked over the manhandling of ethnic Greeks in the area, we ask about the situation and the prime minister’s promise that the project will propel Albania into the “Champions League” of tourist destinations.

In this David-versus-Goliath tale, the lines are becoming blurred between the personal business interests of the Trump family and the power of a sitting US president. US President Donald Trump has sent his son-in-law to mediate peace with Iran and Russia, pardoned his convicted real estate mogul father and appointed him ambassador to France. Why does the outrage seem stronger in Albania than in the United States or here in France, where French President Emmanuel Macron quietly welcomed four-term Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama just this week?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Piera Rocco, Charles Wente.

Watch moreHow can France adapt to recurrent heatwaves?

France's political class is scrambling to prove it's prepared to do what's necessary. Enter that burning question: should there be air conditioning for all? Emphatic yeses are arising from more than just home appliance salespeople: the far-right is all in with A/C, framing as constraining and elitist those who fret that cooling systems add to the warming outside temperatures.

Unquestionably, hospitals, nursing homes, schools and social housing need to adapt to the new normal, with more than half of France's heatwaves occurring since 2010. So what measures should be taken? How to help those who can't afford expensive geothermal pumps or new shutters for their homes? What's fair and what's sustainable?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Piera Rocco, Charles Wente.

Read moreAndy Burnham, ‘King of the North’ and frontrunner to replace Starmer as PM

We ask about the politics of popular Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, and reflect – on the eve of Tuesday's tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum – if the same Britain that took a punt on leaving the European Union can rally behind any leader or any party to end a decade of turmoil.

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Piera Rocco, Juliette Brown, Charles Wente.

Read moreMore than 12 million oil barrels transited the Strait of Hormuz overnight, Vance says

Oil markets certainly believe. They're down again as the Strait of Hormuz gets set to reopen. But it's only a 60-day Memorandum of Understanding. And while Gulf neighbours will cheer the lifting of the blockade on what's the world's biggest maritime choke point for oil and gas, we take a second look at the agreement brokered by Pakistan and Qatar – most notably, the inclusion of a cessation of fighting in Lebanon.

What happens if Israel or Hezbollah don't like the way negotiations unfold? Would Washington and Tehran be able to rein them in? How does the US president's plan compare with the 2015 UN nuclear agreement that he constantly belittles? Are we headed for closure or a whole new level of uncertainty?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Juliette Brown, Charles Wente.

Lunch preceded dinner with tech titans the guests of honour on the closing day of the G7 summit in the French Alps. There, the elephant in the room was Trump's sudden decision last Friday to give Anthropic 90 minutes to shut down foreign access to its latest artificial intelligence models. The reason cited: national security. How exposed are both governments and major corporations like French banking giant BNP Paribas, which recently announced it was partnering with Anthropic for its security needs? Can a stroke of the pen from the Oval Office suddenly expose the rest of the world to hackers?

Read moreAnthropic disables access to top-tier AI models after US ban on foreign use

For years, the same Europeans who counted on the US defence shield to protect them also banked on its big tech: everything from Visa credit cards and Google searches to Amazon deliveries and cloud storage.

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos is the star attraction at this week's VivaTech trade fair in Paris. Silicon Valley's dominance has grown to the point where it draws the planet's money and data. Its billionaire bosses dictate their terms and oligarchs like Elon Musk peddle pro-Kremlin, far-right messaging on their platforms. So how does the rest of the world defend its own national security and sovereignty?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Watch moreTrump suggests US can swiftly reimpose sanctions on Russian oil

How much of it is down to facts on the ground? Overnight, a Moscow-area refinery was hit by a long-range drone, illustrating Kyiv's growing capacity to cripple Russia's oil and gas exports with long-range strikes.

Already, Europeans are tapping into that Ukrainian military upscaling in what's a race against time, with the US drawing down its NATO presence on the continent, making allies pay for Ukraine-bound US hardware and pulling rank on the use of AI by traditional allies who know that true strategic autonomy is years away.

So at summits like this one, even after an Iran war they didn't ask for, G7 members' primary job, critics say, is to placate the president of the United States.

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

We ask what's actually in the memorandum of understanding brokered by Pakistan and Qatar, and whether the uncertainty is well and truly lifted for the world's biggest maritime choke point, the Strait of Hormuz. Will Iran continue to charge for passage? Will the Gulf states pay the US protection money, as Trump insinuated in a New York Times interview? 

Read moreWhat we know about the US-Iran memorandum of understanding

Are Europeans right to volunteer naval patrols? And what should those signatories of the 2015 UN-brokered nuclear agreement make of vague US promises of a new deal with Iran? Everything was done to accommodate the US. Hosts France even pushed back the G7 summit by a day so Trump could enjoy his birthday festivities in Washington. How accommodating  should allies be going forward?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

It's a stark contrast with the build-up in the United States, a host nation that's barred Somalia's African referee of the year despite accreditation and a valid visa, refused entry to fans and support staff from a host of nations, imposed short stay restrictions on Iran's team, which will have to plane-hop between LA and new base camp Tiujana, while FIFA's president counts the cash from both a bloated 48-team tournament and ticket prices that are out of this world.

Read moreSomali referee banned by US from World Cup to officiate European Super Cup, UEFA says

When is it too much? Each World Cup is a snapshot of its time: 1978 in junta-ruled Argentina, 1998 and France feting its black-blanc-beurre multiracial heroes, 2014 and the social unrest of post-commodities boom Brazil.

FRANCE 24's François Picard had the privilege of covering the last time the World Cup was in the United States, in 1994: the highs and lows of Diego Maradona, Bulgaria's shock upset of defending champions Germany and a very different America that hosted the final between Brazil and Italy. How will this one be remembered?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Andrew Hilliar.

We'll also discuss fresh developments involving French singer Patrick Bruel, who was formally charged on Wednesday over allegations of rape and sexual abuse dating back to 1997.

Under pressure, the government has unveiled a series of proposals, including life sentences for certain sex offenders. The Justice Minister blames magistrates for dropping the ball. The far right blames those same magistrates for pursuing what it sees as political vendettas – pointing to the corruption conviction of Marine Le Pen. The left, meanwhile, accuses the government of focusing too heavily on small-time drug dealers while neglecting other priorities. Across the political spectrum, however, there is broad agreement on one point: a lack of resources.

One stark statistic comes from the head of the gendarmerie: in France, four minors every hour file complaints relating to sexual offences. How do authorities cope with such a daunting caseload? And what more can be done to protect children?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Andrew Hilliar.

Or is it those ever closer ties between North Korea and Russia? Moscow's help in exchange for support in the war against Ukraine has been followed up by North Korea's boast of plans to "exponentially" ramp up its nuclear arsenal.

We ask about what was unsaid during Xi's visit to Pyongyang and whether those claims of a construction boom and growth inside one of the world's most reclusive states are true. For instance, is North Korea serious when it talks of developing a tourist industry? And if that growth is for real, how's China taking the news?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

This past weekend, Israel's prime minister ignored the US president and did what most of his constituents want, bombing both Beirut and Iran. Trump could easily cut Israel off for ignoring him. But does he even dare, what with a coalition of Evangelicals and pro-Israel lobbyists so embedded with the Republican establishment that supports him?

Read moreIran launches missiles at Israel in first bombardment since fragile ceasefire

We ask about Trump's options and the fading hope of all those investors and world leaders, who hope that if they just close their eyes long enough, good business sense will prevail and the Strait of Hormuz will return to the free-flowing passage it was before February 28.

With hardliners in both Israel and Iran finding that war is the best insurance policy for their political survival, how does Washington secure a deal that guarantees closure?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

The conference also brought major advances in breast, bladder and head and neck cancers, among others. So why are breakthroughs coming so quickly? Is it the same wave of innovation that delivered Covid vaccines in record time? The growing use of artificial intelligence and increasingly sophisticated data science? Or a political determination to intensify the fight against diseases that affect an ever-growing share of the population?

That broader question inevitably leads to prevention. We'll examine access to screening, lifestyle choices and a factor that often receives far less attention than it deserves: environmental exposure. From air pollution to industrial chemicals, many cancer risks lie beyond the control of any one individual.

Case in point: the bill passed on Wednesday by the French Parliament to reduce cadmium levels in fertilisers and food. Lawmakers backed stricter measures than those proposed by the government, which has faced pressure from France's powerful agricultural lobby.

The dangers of tobacco and alcohol are well known. But how many of the cancers we develop are shaped not only by personal choices, but also by political decisions and commercial interests?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

At the dawn of the artificial intelligence revolution, as investors around the world anticipate record-breaking stock market debuts by Silicon Valley giants this month, and as the US president tightens controls on exports of sensitive AI technologies, how can this old continent scale up and compete? Should it build its own chips, store its own data, and train its workforce to adapt to the massive labour-market disruption already underway? Is it too late? Have the United States and China already won the race? And how can Europe achieve sovereignty while preserving what is arguably the EU's greatest strength: its rules-based order?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Read moreFormer RT France chief Xenia Fedorova fuels concerns over pro-Kremlin influence in French media

How much of what Fedorova says is opinion and how much is disinformation? How much can one billionaire's personal views shape French public opinion ahead of a presidential poll next year where the pro-Putin, pro-Trump far right holds the early lead?

Contrast that with current state policy. On Sunday, France seized another sanctioned Russian tanker with UK support. In the face of repeated Russia-linked aggressions big and small, Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer have doubled down in their support for Ukraine. How much can and should Europeans push back?

Read moreFrance backed by Britain intercepts sanctioned oil tanker sailing from Russia

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

We ask if the taking of the Crusaders-era castle at Beaufort in Lebanon is a PR stunt, or are Israelis digging in at what was an army command centre for nearly two decades during the last occupation of south Lebanon?

Read moreIsraeli forces capture historic castle in deepest Lebanese incursion in 26 years

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu espouses a super Sparta state mentality to national security, insisting that Israel – like the Ancient Greek state – embrace a permanent war footing. Do the benefits outweigh the costs for an Israeli leader who's again up for re-election?

And what about for Hezbollah, the Iranian regime and a United States whose leaders promised no more boots on the ground but who under Donald Trump has increasingly made use of or threatened military might around the globe. Does that project strength or weakness? And is it sustainable?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Likewise, donning a PSG jersey will earn you compliments on several continents. But our panellists may advise against it in Marseille and a host of other cities across France. Old domestic grudges are hard to overcome – even when one side is the defending European champion, and even though PSG’s Qatari owners booted out hooligans a decade ago and streamlined the club’s big egos in favour of an exciting brand of more fast-paced, team-oriented style of play.

Perhaps what lovers and haters of both Arsenal and PSG can agree on is that Saturday’s final could serve up that key ingredient that may be lacking when the FIFA World Cup kicks off in North America: authenticity. Is the beautiful game bigger than the toxic build-up to any one tournament – or will this bloated 48-team, price-surged, travel ban-threatened World Cup be a game-changer for football?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Riham Mahir, Guillaume Gougeon, Charles Wente