Ivory Coast is one of the West African countries where people with severe mental disorders are chained. Half the population must get by on less than one euro per day. This makes it hard to care properly for someone with special needs.

A hundred years ago, painters, sculptors, writers and musicians battled for gold, silver and bronze at the Olympics. To mark a year until the Paris Games, we're looking at the artistic side of the world's biggest sporting event with an exclusive interview with highly acclaimed theatre director Thomas Jolly, who's in charge of the opening and closing ceremonies.

A one-day summit by West African leaders from Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and the Niger Republic ended in a stalemate after the leaders met with Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Muslim Cleric Mahmoud Dicko.

Bruno Le Maire has said cutting all economic ties with China, as some in the West have proposed, is "an illusion." Germany is among the countries seeking to reduce what it sees as a perilous reliance on the Asian giant.

Neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali, which are also both run by military juntas, strongly rebuked regional bloc ECOWAS for weighing the option of using force to reinstate deposed President Mohamed Bazoum.

Mali's junta demanded in June that the MINUSMA force withdraw from the West African country after a decade-long deployment. The mission was created to quell separatist and Islamist insurgencies in northern Mali.

The pact allows Mali and Burkina Faso to provide military assistance to Niger in the event of military intervention against the putschists there.

"We cannot give Marine Le Pen an inexorable path to power," French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin warned, as speculation grows that he might be vying to succeed Emmanuel Macron.

Niger's military junta on Friday announced ordered French ambassador Sylvian Itte to leave the country within 48 hours. Macron reiterated Paris' support for ousted President Mohammed Bazoum.

France says it will not budge in its refusal to engage with Niger's coup leaders. A month after their takeover, they issued a Monday deadline to the French ambassador to leave their country, but Paris has insisted its envoy will stay put. Also, Africa sets its own stage in Kenya for conversations about its experience of the ravages of climate change. With the first ever Africa climate summit now a week away, we speak to its CEO about the existential stakes faced by the continent.

This week we're at the 2023 annual MEDEF meeting, where the largest employers' federation in France gets leaders of the country's business community together to discuss the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead – one of them being the transition to a green economy. A world leader when it comes to waste treatment and solutions is French group Veolia. Its CEO Estelle Brachlianoff told FRANCE 24's Charles Pellegrin about the solutions that waste can provide when it comes to energy.

Food bank Les Restos du Coeur, responsible for one third of food assistance in France, warns that financial difficulties could force it to close within the next three years. We take a look at how France's richest man reacted to the announcement and why he drew criticism. We also discuss concerns about the rising popularity of the far right in France, and finish with some shocking falsehoods in online learning materials for high school students in Sao Paulo.