There are just 18 days to go before round one of the French presidential election. In today's show, we see how former socialist president François Hollande is inching towards making a political comeback after the election. We also take a closer look at decades of tumultuous ties between the French state and Corsica in the wake of recent tensions and delve into the powers of the French president.

French street artist JR travelled to the Ukrainian city of Lviv to install one of his trademark giant portraits. It features a small, smiling Ukrainian girl, dressed for winter, captured in black and white. JR says "this little girl reminds us what Ukrainians are fighting for". Five-year-old Valeria is one of the millions of the refugees to have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion.

The question of how to overhaul France's complex pension system has been a politically sensitive topic for years. A major reform proposed by the current government stalled in 2020 due to the pandemic and following mass protests. But it's once again become an issue in the current presidential campaign. We take a closer look in this special edition.

There are just 17 days to go before the first round of the French presidential election. In this show, we see how the tribute to a murdered Corsican nationalist has stirred fresh controversy. We also take a closer look at Green candidate Yannick Jadot taking on Big Oil, and delve into the issue of European defence.

The human rights monitor looks back on civil and human rights in 2021, a year of dashed hopes. According to Amnesty International, the digital sphere is increasingly becoming a space for activism — and repression.

One month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, FRANCE 24 speaks to Slovakian Prime Minister Eduard Heger, as his country takes in tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees and prepares to host a NATO battlegroup for the first time.

France's conservative presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse is back on the campaign trail after being sidelined for five days because of Covid-19. She says she is "campaigning for real purchasing power", but can she still qualify for the second round of April's election? Plus, our reporters went to Yannick Jadot's big rally in Paris to find out why the Greens' chances of winning France's presidential election look so slim.

The French healthcare system is often held up as an example for its quality of treatment and universality of coverage. But disparities exist across the country, with a severe shortage of doctors in certain areas seriously limiting access to care, a phenomenon the French call "medical deserts". Although the government has decided to increase the number of students accepted to medical school, this measure will take almost a decade to bear fruit. FRANCE 24's reporters Pauline Godart and Claire Paccalin went to find out what it's like to live and work in a "medical desert".

The city of Bourges in central France is famous for its UNESCO-listed cathedral and medieval city centre. But the capital of the Berry region has another historic asset: its marshes, a labyrinth of vegetable gardens. Located a few minutes from the city centre, the people of Bourges have enthusiastically maintained them for more than a century. This small corner of paradise is now attracting more and more city dwellers looking for peace and quiet. FRANCE 24 takes you to discover this unique but fragile ecosystem.

Delivering a chilling account of atrocities allegedly committed by Russian troops over the past six weeks in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged the UN Security Council to hold Moscow accountable for its crimes. But what does the path to a possible war crimes trial look like?

The German word used to describe Putin sympathizers now has its own English Wikipedia page. But what does "Putinversteher" mean and who does it refer to?

With three days to go until the first round of the presidential election, French voters are uninterested and undecided, leaving paper La Croix concerned about the country's future. Is alarm over a possible far-right victory a campaign strategy of Emmanuel Macron, or is far-right contender Marine Le Pen "more of a threat than ever before"? We also look at reactions in Burkina Faso to the trial over Thomas Sankara's 1987 assassination, as well as US sanctions on Vladimir Putin's daughters and French campaign goodies.