François Picard is pleased to welcome Vitalii Kim, Minister for Veterans' Affairs of Ukraine. "If Europe will not support us, we also will fight because it's our motherland," says Kim, insisting that Ukraine's determination to resist Russian aggression will endure regardless of the outcome of negotiations over European financial assistance. Yet behind this assertion of national resolve lies a more complex reality: a country confronting not only the immediate pressures of war, but also its mounting psychological, social and institutional consequences.

François Picard is pleased to welcome Vitalii Kim, Minister for Veterans Affairs of Ukraine. “If Europe will not support us, we also will fight because it's our motherland,” says Kim, insisting that Ukraine's determination to resist Russian aggression will endure regardless of the outcome of negotiations over European financial assistance. Yet behind this assertion of national resolve lies a more complex reality: a country confronting not only the immediate pressures of war, but also its mounting psychological, social and institutional consequences.

In Israel, the surprises only start with election night: they're still counting ballots in a vote that featured the highest turnout in decades, historic inroads by Arab parties, Benjamin Netanyahu’s worst result since 1999 and yet Israel’s longest-serving prime minister still has a path to staying in power. As we await the definitive makeup of the next parliament, our panel breaks out the calculators and pie charts: in what scenario does Netanyahu survive? Is the issue with the right-wing Likud leader or his policies? 

François Picard welcomes Igor Mladenovic, a French-Serbian sports writer, sports business analyst and former football commentator based in Luxembourg. For Mladenovic, the backlash in China over Kylian Mbappé's playful reference to a meme depicting him in the likeness of Mao Zedong illustrates a dilemma of the digital age: how a seemingly innocuous anecdote from a football superstar can escalate into a geopolitical firestorm.