François Picard is pleased to welcome Layla Abdelké Yakoub, Tax Justice and Inequality Advocacy Officer at Oxfam France. "Today in France a billionaire pays less taxes proportionally than a nurse or a firefighter," explains Yakoub. She challenges the foundations of France's fiscal system, arguing that the growing concentration of wealth and preferential tax treatment of the ultra-rich are undermining the constitutional principle of equality before taxation. As Oxfam pursues legal action against the French state, Yakoub describes a widening disconnect between the government's efforts to attract investment and its ability to finance public services, address poverty and carve out an ecological transition.

She points to the extraordinary accumulation of wealth among France's billionaires under President Emmanuel Macron, while questioning whether policies designed to enhance economic competitiveness have delivered broader social benefits. Her critique extends beyond tax rates to the erosion of enforcement capacity, arguing that insufficient oversight allows the wealthiest taxpayers to exploit an increasingly unequal system. At the heart of her argument lies a fundamental socio-political and economic question: Can a state claim to uphold fiscal equality when its wealthiest citizens contribute proportionally less than ordinary workers?

For Yakoub, the debate is no longer simply about economic redistribution. It concerns the legitimacy of the fiscal system itself and whether legal action can compel the French government to reconcile its tax policies with its constitutional commitments and public institutions.

François Picard is pleased to welcome Xiaoming Li, Professor of Medical Oncology at the University College London and a specialist in lung cancer. “Lung cancer is not one cancer. There are many different types of lung cancer,” explains Li. For decades, lung cancer has been closely associated with smoking, late diagnosis and poor survival prospects. Yet there is a broader revolution in cancer brewing: Medicine advances in molecular oncology, minimally invasive surgery and immunotherapy are fundamentally transforming both the understanding and treatment of the disease, including among patients who have never smoked.

Expressing cautious optimism about the reported success of Pope Leo's operation to remove cancer found in his lung, Li emphasised the importance of early detection while acknowledging that the final pathology results would be essential to determining the long-term prognosis and any further treatment. UCL's oncologist challenges conventional assumptions about lung cancer, pointing to its growing recognition among non-smokers, the emergence of precision treatments tailored to the molecular characteristics of individual tumours, and the potential of experimental mRNA vaccines. “We are seeing people who are living long term despite stage four cancer,” Li observed, highlighting advances that are reshaping expectations even for patients with advanced disease. As researchers investigate the genetic and environmental factors behind lung cancer and explore vaccines that could potentially prevent recurrence, Li's central message is one of scientifically grounded optimism: earlier detection and increasingly personalised treatment are opening possibilities that were scarcely imaginable just a generation ago.

François Picard is pleased to welcome Alban Guyomarc'h, Researcher in Space Geopolitics at Paris's École Normale Supérieure School of Higher Learning. As a new era of space rivalry unfolds, the International Space Station remains one of the last bastions of cooperation between geopolitical adversaries. For Guyomarc'h, the latest ISS mission is more than a remarkable technological achievement. "It's one of the rare collaboration spaces we still have today in a very conflictual era".

He describes the ISS as a historic bridge between East and West. Guyomarc'h examines the emotional experience of returning from orbit, the geopolitical implications of the ISS's planned retirement, and the intensifying competition to establish a permanent presence on the Moon. From nuclear-powered lunar infrastructure to the growing strategic importance of space, his analysis reveals a central paradox: as humanity acquires unprecedented capabilities to explore beyond Earth, the political foundations of cooperation in space appear increasingly fragile.

François Picard is pleased to welcome Petros Konstantinidis, Journalist for TA NEA, Greece's leading daily newspaper, as a financial and investigative reporter. It has all the makings of a reality TV show or a telenovela, or both! “This is diplomacy under Trump turning into lifestyle diplomacy”, explains Konstantinidis.

With this striking observation, he captures the transformation of US-Greek relations under Donald Trump. Against a backdrop of controversy surrounding US ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump Jr's ex-fiancee, Konstantinidis exposes the tensions between diplomatic spectacle, allegations of political interference and increasingly transactional geopolitical alliances. From American energy investments and multibillion-dollar arms purchases to Greece's ambitions as a regional energy hub, Konstantinidis reveals how economic vulnerability and strategic calculation are reshaping Athens' foreign policy, raising fundamental questions about sovereignty, diplomacy, realpolitik and the price of privileged access to Washington.

François Picard is pleased to welcome Valdemar Osted, partner and head of technology at Danish digital consultancy Common Consultancy. Can the fear of disinformation become as dangerous to democracy as disinformation itself? Osted challenges widely circulated claims that attacks on Russian data centres have triggered a sudden collapse in online engagement among supporters of Donald Trump and Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). Drawing on social media monitoring and research into inauthentic behaviour, Osted reports finding no unusual decline in Facebook interactions following the attacks.

While acknowledging the reality of Russian influence operations, and disinformation campaigns, he cautions against confusing the existence of bots with evidence of meaningful electoral influence. More fundamentally, he argues that the democratic danger extends beyond foreign interference to the growing suspicion that undermines public confidence in political discourse. "The mere presence of even a small amount of misinformation or disinformation can, over time, erode trust in democracy and our institutions," he warns. His analysis raises a broader question for contemporary democracies: when allegations of manipulation become pervasive, can widespread fear of deception lead to democratic destabilisation?

François Picard is pleased to welcome Kyrylo Berkal, Deputy Commander of Ukraine's Third Army Corps. He sees Ukraine’s struggle centred on human potential, adaptation and will. While Ukraine is outnumbered, outgunned and sometimes outflanked, their answer is to make human initiative a weapon: giving soldiers and sergeants room to innovate, developing technology from the tactical level upward, and trying to outthink their adversary. Berkal says that Operation Vivaldi embodies that philosophy.

The deputy commander describes Vivaldi as a "symphony" of men, women, technology, training and leadership, with human potential at its very centre. On the northern flank of the Donbas battlefield, their objective has been to stabilise the front, disrupt Russian advances and regain the initiative. But for Berkal, this war represents so much more than just military tactics.

Having left civilian life after Russia's seizure of Crimea in 2014, he understands the conflict as a struggle over whether Ukrainians can preserve their independence, culture, history, heritage and families, and determine their own future.

Public reporting says Vivaldi has involved Ukrainian advances and counter-infiltration operations in northern Donetsk; the Third Army Corps subsequently reported 125 km² brought back under Ukrainian control across its first two phases, including 50 km² retaken from Russian occupation.

A referendum has been held on whether Swiss neutrality should be more strictly, legally enforced in the Constitution.

We have to go back to the Congress of Vienna in 1815, to the moment Swiss neutrality was internationally recognised. After the defeat of Napoleon, European powers wanted a stable buffer as the balance of power was being reconstructed. There were no camera phones back then; it is the work of the great French artist Jean-Baptiste Isabey that captures the meeting.

In 1907, Switzerland codified its stated neutrality, not militarily supporting one belligerent or another. But it doesn't apply to economic measures, and Switzerland joined the EU in sanctions on Russia in 2022.

François Picard is pleased to welcome Barbara Slavin, Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center. She describes the US-Iran conflict as a dangerous combination of military escalation, diplomatic ambiguity and political calculation. Slavin sees an absence of true diplomacy: the recent indirect contacts between Washington and Tehran, mediated by Qatar, have been too limited and too fragile to produce any serious breakthrough. For her, this amounts to "kabuki diplomacy": they half engage while positioning themselves against any appearance of compromise.

The consequences are already extending well beyond the US war on Iran. Saudi Arabia has been drawn deeper into the conflict, the Houthis continue to pose a threat to regional security and shipping, and the disruption around the Strait of Hormuz has been incredibly consequential for global energy markets.

All the while, both Washington and Tehran face domestic political incentives not to appear as though they are yielding to any pressure. For President Donald Trump, the political cost of appearing weak would be too high; for Iran, sustained pressure on oil markets may create incentives to wait rather than compromise.

Slavin sees the coming months as a period in which diplomacy will remain elusive. The central question is whether either side can move away from brinkmanship without sacrificing their respective hardline political positions. Yet she believes that it is still significant that contacts have taken place at all. The challenge is turning those exchanges into a sustained process capable of ending the war rather than merely managing endless threats and escalations.