Spotlight On France

A French-German weapons manufacturer ramps up production to meet the needs of France's war economy. An encounter with France's largest supercomputer dedicated to artificial intelligence. And how the Marseillaise national anthem has contributed to reinforcing French values and ideals. Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, President Emmanuel Macron said France was moving into a "war economy" – calling on weapons manufacturers in particular to produce more and more quickly. We hear from staff at KNDS, a Franco-German defence group half-owned by the French state, about how they've managed to triple production of Caesar artillery and ammunitions to deliver to Ukraine. We also talk about the challenges of funding a war economy, given France's huge deficit, with economist Virginie Monvoisin from the Grenoble School of Management. (Listen @2'20'')As France aims to become a leader in developing artificial intelligence, it is upping its investment into building the computing power needed to ru