Israel's offensive in Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attacks is reverberating in the West Bank. While not directly involved in the conflict, the Palestinian territory's economy lies in tatters, in part because Israel revoked work permits for 130,000 Palestinians in the West Bank. We speak to a Palestinian entrepreneur about the broader challenges of running a business in the territory, including checkpoints, Israeli occupation and blocked financial flows. Amal Daraghmeh Masri is CEO and...

From Paris to Berlin, from Warsaw to Brussels, this week farmers stepped up their protests against the European Green Deal and hikes in diesel taxes, all against a backdrop of inflation, climate change and competition from Ukrainian imports. Tractors have been blocking highways and sending a message to governments as well as the public: "the people who feed you are having trouble feeding themselves". We speak to a cereal grower about the agricultural sector's challenges and the reasons behind...

This week we bring you two conversations from the World Economic Forum in Davos. The rise of artificial intelligence and the green transition are two of the most pressing issues of our day. We see how these two seemingly distinct topics overlap with Georges-Olivier Reymond, CEO of French supercomputer maker Pasqal and Olivier Blum, Schneider Electric's executive vice president.

This week, we bring you a special edition of People & Profit from the snowy Swiss resort of Davos as it hosts the annual World Economic Forum. Where will the global economy land in 2024 amid a spike in geopolitical tensions and a growing risk of fragmentation? We speak with Gita Gopinath, First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

The world is entering the "Voldemort of years", according to political risk consultancy Eurasia Group. In its annual report released this week, "Top Risks for 2024," it says the US presidential election will pose the greatest political risk to the world in 2024, no matter who wins. The Eurasia Group ranked the violence in the Middle East as the second-greatest global risk this year, followed by Ukraine. Ian Bremmer is president and founder of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media. He discussed the...

2023 has been a tough year for the global diamond industry. After a boom during the pandemic, prices of the precious stone have dropped significantly amid oversupply, higher interest rates and increasing competition from lab-grown gems. And starting on New Year's Day, EU members will no longer be allowed to buy diamonds that come directly from Russia, unless the stones are intended for industrial purposes. FRANCE 24's Yuka Royer asks industry analyst Paul Zimnisky how much impact these...

With Christmas just around the corner, we take a closer look at what's driving trends this holiday season. Corks will be popping, but maybe not as many as in the past few years. We discuss the state of France's champagne sector with Faustine Konrat, a small champagne producer in the region.  

Is the Spotify model a successful one? The streaming platform launched in 2008 is the leader in its field, on par with what radio and CDs used to represent in the sense that it's become the most convenient way for people to consume music and other audio content. We discuss this and the growing business of investing in music royalties with Marzio Schena, the CEO of Europe's biggest music investment platform, ANote. We finish by looking at the Taylor Swift phenomenon. The pop star, who has been...

Will a sense of urgency prevail at COP28? The climate talks in the United Arab Emirates will once again bring to the fore the challenges of financing the world's move to sustainable development. The vice president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Sir Danny Alexander, joins us from Dubai to give us his take.

With Black Friday sales kicking off on November 24, we take a closer look at the retail sector, from the rise of live-streaming e-commerce to the environmental toll of consumerism and the "Green Friday" movements that are trying to change our consumption habits.

Elon Musk's generative AI venture, xAI, has launched Grok, its rival to ChatGPT. The billionaire is hoping to capitalise on the artificial intelligence revolution. While the private sector races to profit from AI innovation, governments are scrambling to keep up, vowing to protect humanity from potential catastrophe. So what might AI regulation look like? We discuss the issue with French tech entrepreneur Denis Jacquet, founder and CEO of Top Cream. 

In the wake of major document leaks and studies showing how wealthy individuals and multinational corporations avoid taxation, governments around the world are seeking to crack down. But are the measures being put in place truly effective? Bryan Quinn speaks to Panayiotis Nicolaides, one of the authors of the EU Tax Observatory's latest report on global tax evasion.

When bombs are falling, arms industry profits are rising. As war rages in Gaza, we look at how the defence sector is both benefiting from the violence and struggling to keep up. Even before the latest flare-up, global defence spending was rising to Cold War levels – largely due to the war in Ukraine, but also due to a perceived threat from China's growing military prowess. In 2022, military outlays rose for the eighth straight year, hitting $2.24 trillion.

Thousands of lives have been lost on both sides in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. The 2 million residents of the Gaza Strip are now going through one of their worst humanitarian crises, forced to find shelter from Israeli air strikes within a densely packed territory that's under siege. In this show, we look at the economic impact of the war between Israel and Hamas, how it could devastate local economies and its potential impact on the global economy. We're joined by Bassem...

As developing economies need more financial support to deal with climate change, we look at the crucial role the private sector can play in the green transition. The head of the International Finance Corporation, Makhtar Diop, joins us from Marrakech to share his insights on the role the private sector has to play in development and climate change resilience.

Semiconductor microchips power the electronic devices that are a mainstay of 21st century daily life, whether it's our smartphone, our car, or the data centres that hold all our online information. These chips are of strategic importance and in a changing geopolitical landscape where transnational trade routes are increasingly at risk of disruption, the race is on to bring their manufacturing closer to home.

This week we head to Monaco on the French Riviera, where the principality is holding its annual Yacht Show. Visitors will be able to gawk at the world's most expensive leisure boats and a lucky few might even be able to buy one. But behind the glitz and glamour, the industry is facing choppy seas. Russian buyers are now out of the game, and the conversation over the sector's outsized carbon emissions is catching up with it. 

Finding space... in space! We speak to General Michel Friedling, founder of Look Up Space, the French startup that's developing a solution to better navigate Earth's increasingly cluttered lower orbit. 

As France hosts hundreds of thousands of rugby fans from around the world for the 2023 World Cup, we take a deep-dive into the business that surrounds the game with Herbert Mensah, president of Rugby Africa who joins us from Accra in Ghana, as well as Christina Philippou, a principal lecturer at the University of Portsmouth with a particular research interest in sports finance.

As carmakers transition away from the internal combustion engine towards electric vehicles, we take a look at how the switch is reshaping global supply chains, trade route and geopolitics. We talk to Henry Sanderson, author of "Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green". He is also the Executive Editor at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. 

This week we're at the 2023 annual MEDEF meeting, where the largest employers' federation in France gets leaders of the country's business community together to discuss the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead – one of them being the transition to a green economy. A world leader when it comes to waste treatment and solutions is French group Veolia. Its CEO Estelle Brachlianoff told FRANCE 24's Charles Pellegrin about the solutions that waste can provide when it comes to energy.

In a post-Covid era where music lovers have less disposable income and organisers face higher costs, we discuss what music festivals can do to survive. We're joined by John Rostron, CEO of the Association of Independent Festivals in the UK. 

As football clubs form their teams for next season, more and more of them are turning to a digital marketplace to see which players they could sign on. Charles Pellegrin talks to Frederik Broholt, commercial vice president of TransferRoom. Also, we take a look at the historic deal that reduces Ecuador’s debt burden and guarantees better protection of the Galapagos ecosystem.

As the aviation industry gathers at the Paris Air Show, aircraft manufacturers are cautiously optimistic. Demand for international travel is growing, although inflation and supply chain issues still dampen the mood. In this special edition of People & Profit from Le Bourget, FRANCE 24's Charles Pellegrin talks to Boeing's senior VP Brendan Nelson about the industry's rebound. 

Global tech leaders and industry giants have descended on the French capital for the seventh edition of VivaTech, Europe's largest trade fair for new technology. Artificial intelligence (AI) is taking centre stage this year. French President Emmanuel Macron announced €500 million ($543 million) in new funding to "create champions" in AI and praised projects targeting French speakers, as concern grows about Silicon Valley firms fuelling English-language domination of AI systems.