Mapping the World Essentials

<p>The French presidential election campaign has been dominated by foreign policy issues as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and NATO membership have been top of the agenda.</p>

France: A Foreign Affairs Election?

The French presidential election campaign has been dominated by foreign policy issues as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and NATO membership have been top of the agenda.

On 1 May 2004, the European Union welcomed ten new members, including eight countries from Central and Eastern Europe. This massive enlargement changed overnight the dynamics of the EU. Twenty years on, how has this enlargement in the East shaped the new member states and the EU as a whole?

EU enlargement into eastern Europe was a major geopolitical moment in 2004. A focus on the European Union's biggest decision and its consequences.

EU Enlargement: Twenty Years On

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A region of Europe with a shared experience of communism and USSR dominance, Eastern Europe today is characterised by nations with diverse cultural and political identities.

How many Eastern Europes?

Mapping the World

How we represent our world in maps depends on our perspective. For many centuries Europeans have put their continent in the centre and on top of their maps, the Chinese likewise placed the Middle Kingdom in the centre of things. What do our maps tell us about our worldview?

Cartography: How We Represent the World

For centuries Europeans have put their continent in the centre of their maps, the Chinese likewise placed the Middle Kingdom in the centre of things. What do our maps tell us about our worldview?

Warfare has evolved with the professionalisation of armies, the refusal of public opinion to see their soldiers sacrifice their lives in distant lands, and the emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, robots and other drones.

21st Century Warfare

Warfare has evolved into high tech drone strikes and robo-armies, and it's a gamechanger for global geopolitics

All world powers want a piece of Antartica, the only continent that belongs to everyone and no one. This unique territory at the end of the world is currently protected by international law, with only scientific research allowed. But for how long will it remain a pristine wilderness?

Antarctica: Ice and Greed

All world powers want a piece of Antartica, the only continent that belongs to everyone and no one.

Amongst the millions of species of insect on the planet, the bee plays a crucial role in human civilisation. A focus on how bees have spread around the world with globalisation and how they are now critically endangered.

Bees and Agriculture

How has the life of European Union citizens changed since the Maastricht Treaty came into force thirty years ago, on 1 November 1993? Documentary filmmaker, David Holland, born the same year as Maastricht travels the length and breadth of the continent by rail to find out.

A Journey through the Continent

How has the life of European Union citizens changed since the Maastricht Treaty came into force thirty years ago, on 1 November 1993?

Europe since Maastricht

The world's tech giants - the likes of Facebook, Apple or Google - now have a political role to play. They can curb misinformation or spread it, along with all of the massive social issues that entails. An in-depth analysis of social media uses and regulations in China, the United States, and Europe.

The Geopolitics of Social Media

An in-depth analysis of social media uses and regulations in China, the United States, Europe and Russia.

Cyprus is a divided island: Greeks live in the south in the recognised Republic of Cyprus, part of the EU and the wider international community whilst Turks live in the north in a state only recognised by Turkey.

Cyprus: A Divided Island

Focus on theisland of Cyprus split between the Greek south and the Turkish north.

Bonuses and Extracts

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Last month, saw the hottest March on record reminding us that the race against the clock to prevent climate catastophe rages on. But is Europe doing enough to stave off a deepening climate crisis? This ARTE Europe Weekly, we go to Europe's top courtrooms where legal battles are changing the course of climate change.

Climate protection is now a human right

Climate inaction violates human rights according to a top EU court. But how seriously is Europe taking the climate crisis?

ARTE Europe Weekly

A joyous return to the stage for Zach Condon and his European folk-focussed indie project Beirut. This is music as imagined landscape, a romantic sweep of Europe's past through the eyes of an American troubadour. From his Balkan-tinged debut in 2006, through a bohemian France dreamed up on 2007's The Flying Cup Club and on towards the Dutch and Mexican influences of his later material, Beirut is clearly the work of a singular vision while remaining hauntingly familiar, a half-remembered dream of a past life. Latest album Hadsel was inspired by a short time spent exiled in northern Norway, an emotional return to form released in 2023.

Live in Berlin's Tempodrom

After some time in the wilderness, Zach Condon leads his romantic indie-folk project to a triumphant return to the stage.

Beirut

On 4 April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed, enshrining the creation of NATO just four years after the end of the Second World War. The primary objective of this military alliance of twelve European and North American countries was to prevent war in Europe and to counter the expansion of the Soviet bloc. Since its creation in the Cold War, the organisation has grown from 12 to 31 member states - including several former Eastern Bloc nations. Weakened by its turbulent history, NATO is facing a growing number of challenges: the difficulty of coordinating its members, the logistical obstacles in the event of an attack on European soil, and the threat, raised by Donald Trump, of an American withdrawal, at a time when European defence is almost entirely dependent on the United States.

A look back at the turbulent history of the military alliance facing unprecedented challenges in the face of Putin's Russia.

Putin, NATO, and Europe

After the coup d'état on 1 February 2021, which brought the ten-year transition to democracy in Myanmar to an abrupt end, thousands of young urbanites, both men and women, gave up their lives to join the resistance against the junta.

Myanmar: The Rebel Army

After the coup d'état in February 2021, thousands of young urbanites gave up their city lives to join the resistance.

ARTE Reportage

Diwa is only 11 years old. She is one of the thousands of victims of a crime that is hardly reported on in Europe but which is causing havoc in the Philippines. She was raped by her parents, live on the internet, to satisfy the desires of foreign paedophiles who paid for the spectacle of her rape, giving instructions from a distance.

Philippines: Child Rape Online

Thousands of children in the Philippines have been abused, live on the internet. Report on a shocking crime.

A quiet corner of northern Europe is the epicentre of a violent world of gangs and traffickers. With drugs flooding in, Europe is on course to become the world’s biggest cocaine market. The Mocro Maffia is just one of the powerful criminal networks operating in the Netherlands, northern France and Belgium that is behind a trail of addiction, money and contract killings. In this episode we dive into Europe’s drug trade.

The underground world of Europe’s drug trade

A secretive Moroccan mafia organisation is behind a new influx of cocaine flowing through Europe’s ports.

When Mark Zuckerberg launched the metaverse it was going to revolutionise our lives. Except it didn’t. How Zuck made the embodied internet so uninspiring.

Nothing Else Metas

The metaverse was supposed to revolutionise our lives. Except it didn’t. And it was really uninspiring.

Super Fails

Sacred music meets the theatricality of opera in Handel's oratorio Messiah, here conducted by Laurence Equilbey and performed by the Insula Orchestra, Polish artist Jakub Józef Orliński and the Chœurs accentus at the Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival.

Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival

Laurence Equilbey conducts Handel's "Messiah" at the Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival.

Handel's Messiah

Chinese men are suffering. There are simply not enough women to go around since China implemented its one-child policy in 1979.  This means that 1 in 5 Chinese men will not be able to find a partner in five years’ time.

Chinese men are suffering. There are simply not enough women to go around since China implemented its one-child policy in 1979. 

China: Men without Women

For one of Europe’s smallest countries, Slovakia has a lot to offer: Unspoilt nature, a host of castles, a unique inland delta on the Danube and countless hot springs. An invitation to discover a beautiful land in the heart of Europe.

For one of Europe’s smallest countries, Slovakia has a lot to offer: Unspoilt nature, a host of castles, a unique inland delta on the Danube and countless hot springs.

Surprising Slovakia

In north-east Honduras, a team of archaeologists is unearthing the remains of a lost pre-Hispanic culture. This documentary looks at their discoveries and how important they are in revealing the history of pre-Colombian central American civilisations.

In north-east Honduras, a team of archaeologists is unearthing the remains of a lost pre-Hispanic culture

Honduras - A Vanished World

120 years ago, a capitalist Eldorado emerged in the USA, paving the way for today’s billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. How did the power of the super-rich consolidate, especially during the depression after 1929 or during Ronald Reagan's policy of deregulation and tax cuts in the 1980s?

A Paradise for Millionaires (1870-1920)

How a capitalist Eldorado emerged in the USA 120 years ago, paving the way for today’s billionaires.

Capitalism in America - The Cult of Wealth (1/3)

The Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival has invited paino legend Elisabeth Leonskaja to perform two sonatas by Franz Schubert in front of a lucky audience at the Grand Théâtre de Provence.

Pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja presents two Schubert sonatas in Aix-en-Provence.

Elisabeth Leonskaja performs Schubert

The German Reichsbürgerbewegung (Reich citizens movement) rejects the post-war democratic order and wants to rip up the German constitution. Suspected of involvement in a 2022 coup d’état plot, the movement is growing. Who are its members? And why do they want to do away with democracy?

Inside the German Far Right Movement

What is the dangerous and extreme organisation that rejects the post-war democratic order in Germany?

Citizens of the Reich

Denmark is often held up as a social and economic ideal, a model for other countries, with its dynamic economy and low unemployment. Yet this Scandinavian kingdom is suffering from a serious shortage of skilled labour, making filling certain positions in vital sectors – including healthcare, construction and renewable energies – a hard task.

Denmark is suffering from a shortage of skilled labour, making filling vital positions almost impossible.

Denmark’s skilled labour shortage

Noetic, Faun and Boléro: Three elements, three visions, three journeys through dance. Choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's show offers a profound reflection on our intimate connection with the world around us. From putting mathematics in movement to Ravel's Boléro as a dance of death, Cherkaoui transcends the boundaries of the stage to offer us a unique philosophical perception of the world.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui with Damien Jalet and Marina Abramovic

Mathematics in motion, the "Bolero" as a dance of death: Plunge into Cherkaoui's philosophical vision of the world.

Elements

In 2023, the elusive Slowdive stepped out of the shadows with their magnificent album Everything is Alive, giving new and longterm fans plenty of reasons to gaze at their shoes. Experience the heady fug worked up by these legendary Brits on this edition of Echoes with Jehnny Beth.

Echoes with Jehnny Beth

The legendary shoegaze of Slowdive glides onto Echoes with Jehnny Beth.

Slowdive

A meticulously researched investigation showing how sexual predators operate on Instagram; and how the algorithm could even encourage paedophile activity.

Paedophilia: The dark side of Instagram

A meticulously researched investigation showing how sexual predators operate on the Meta social network. 

Mapping the World EssentialsFrance: A Foreign Affairs Election?

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