This week, we're exploring a key question ahead of the upcoming presidential elections in France: "to vote or not to vote?" As the list of candidates gets longer, the race is on to drum up support. But voter apathy is still a major concern and increasing numbers of would-be voters are turning their backs on politicians and the political system. Our reporters went to one Paris suburb with a particularly high abstention rate to meet some who are adamant they're going nowhere near a polling station this spring.

Pro-junta protesters rally in Ouagadougou a day after a military takeover in Burkina Faso. Also, the head of the Confederation of African Football, Patrice Motsepe, blames Monday's fatal crush at the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon on an inexplicably closed gate. And Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa changes the name of his party ahead of elections. Our correspondents bring us the latest on all these stories and more.

A coup in Burkina Faso follows military takeovers in Guinea and Mali as civilian administrations are blamed for a failure to tackle a rise in insurgent violence.

"President" is a Sundance award-winning film that gives us a gripping and unprecedented front-row seat to recent history. It's about an election that was believed to be stolen and a people who felt robbed of their first free and fair vote following the removal of longtime leader Robert Mugabe in a military coup in Zimbabwe in 2017.

Protesters blocking a major bridge connecting Canada and the US were ordered to clear the area by a court ruling.

Thousands of Tunisians have demonstrated in the capital after President Kais Saied granted himself new judicial powers in a decree. Saied can now unilaterally fire and block appointments of judges.

The trucker-led protesters occupying the Canadian capital Ottawa show no sign of backing down, despite a newly invoked state of emergency that grants sweeping police powers to try to end the protest over Covid-19 rules. FRANCE 24's Peter O'Brien tells us more about the standoff.

For a second day, police have moved in to disperse the so-called "freedom convoy" near the Parliament. Downtown Ottawa has been occupied by protesters and their trucks since late last month.

On tonight's show we focus on Sudan, where demonstrators once again have taken to the streets to call for the release of prisoners incarcerated for taking part in the recurring protests since last October's military coup. The latest demonstrations come just a day after the UN human rights expert Adama Dieng arrived on his first official visit to Sudan.

Have Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin joined forces against the West? And is democracy under pressure? Guests: Sudha David-Wilp (German Marshall Fund), Didi-Kirsten Tatlow (DGAP), Vladimir Esipov (DW)

"It cannot be that an autocrat attacks a sovereign country which has the right to the integrity of its territory." That's the firm response directed at Russia from the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. Speaking exclusively to FRANCE 24 about the war in Ukraine, the EU leader added that "democracy is standing up against autocracy and therefore we stand as one".

Alaa Abdel-Fattah's family hopes that his UK citizenship can secure his release from prison. The activist has spent much of the past decade behind bars, along with many other Egyptian political prisoners.