In visiting Kyiv, Roberta Metsola becomes the first EU top official to visit Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor on February 24.

Brussels is seeking to warn Beijing about supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine — and to use its influence to stop the war. Some experts, however, are skeptical about what can be achieved during the EU-China summit.

Amid supermarket food rationing, a truck drivers' strike over petrol prices and rising inflation in Spain, the country's economy minister tells FRANCE 24 that it's "essential" for Madrid to be allowed to take measures to bring electricity prices down. "We're working with the Commission to have an authorisation to decouple our energy market and thus stop this price increase […] It doesn't make sense that Spanish and Portuguese citizens do not benefit from the fact that we have for instance at least 50 percent of our generation from renewables. This is very cheap and clean energy and our citizens should benefit from these low prices," Nadia Calviño explains.

As Serbs prepare to vote in parliamentary and presidential polls on Sunday, members of Germany's Bundestag tell DW that they expect the government in Belgrade to make a clear break with Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Papers focus on the tough choices facing presidential candidates Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Emmanuel Macron as polls show a tighter-than-expected second round run-off with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. French website Mediapart looks at why Ukraine may not be winning the information war outside of the West. Finally, we look at US coverage of Amazon workers in New York making history.

The European Union is mulling a total phaseout of coal imports from Russia as the bloc considers how to move away from Russian energy. Germany has voiced support for a possible coal embargo.

The European Union has proposed a ban on imports of Russian coal, as the bloc expands sanctions on Moscow. But how important is coal to the EU's energy mix? Also in the show: Elon Musk officially joins the board of directors of Twitter, after becoming the platform's single biggest shareholder.

Ahead of the first round of France's presidential election on Sunday, far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon is still trying to channel voters, this time using holograms. On the other side of the political spectrum, the far-right's Marine Le Pen continues to close the gap on incumbent Emmanuel Macron in the polls.

A jet full of cocaine in Brazil shows Turkey's increasing role in global drug trafficking. The UN drugs agency says the cocaine is sent via Turkey to EU countries, as well as Eastern European and Middle Eastern nations.

The EU is coming to the end of a major experiment in public debate: the Conference on the Future of Europe, an eight-month-long event in which the EU invited its 450 million citizens to share their thoughts on how the bloc might reorient itself to face new challenges. What – if anything – has the conference achieved? Will true change come about? We discuss this with three guests who took part in the Conference itself.

Over the past eight months, the Conference on the Future of Europe has aimed to give a voice to 800 citizens from the 27 EU member states. The goal of this unprecedented endeavour was to see concrete progress on the climate, employment, health and even diplomacy. A third of the participants were under 25 years old.

Incumbent Emmanuel Macron and his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen have both made it to the April 24 second round of the French presidential election. They have already embarked on a final fortnight of bruising campaigning ahead of a run-off whose outcome is far less certain than it was in 2017. FRANCE 24's Charles Pellegrin reports from Le Pen's surprise visit to a rural area. Plus, Europe editor Catherine Nicholson explains how this election could greatly impact the future of NATO and the EU.