As the 77th Cannes Film Festival gets underway, where Japanese anime studio – Studio Ghibli – is being awarded the honorary Palm d'Or, we take a look at Japanese pop culture that has become all the rage in France. Founded by Hayao Miyazaki in 1985, Studio Ghibli has produced films like 'the Boy and the Heron', 'Spirited Away' and 'Princess Mononoke'. But why has Japanese anime become so popular in France? Seeking to gain and maintain its influence, Japan has since WWII adopted a soft-power strategy which focuses on the export of its pop culture including manga, video games, cosplay and anime.

Another showdown in the country that launched the so-called coloured revolutions. Georgia’s parliament has shrugged off some of the biggest protests in its post-Soviet history by approving a “foreign agents” bill that mirrors legislation in neighbouring Russia. The opposition argues it is the way for the government to curb media freedom and dissent in a country which only recently graduated to EU candidate status.

France has declared a state of emergency in its overseas territory of New Caledonia. Violence over a planned constitutional reform is threatening its already struggling economy. Plus, Boeing may face the criminal prosecution it had avoided back in 2021, with the US Justice Department accusing the planemaker of violating the terms of the deferred prosecution deal.