AUSUK row: France ups the ante

The French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drain, has accused the United States and Australia of 'lies', 'duplicity', 'contempt' and a 'major rupture of trust" in the row over Canberra's cancellation of a multi-billion dollar order for French submarines, which it has now replaced with American nuclear-powered ones.

Also in the programme: the Kenyan government declares a national emergency as a drought leaves two million Kenyans facing starvation as crops fail; and Alev Scott reflects on the rights and wrongs of a foreign holiday. This weeks panellists are Isabel Hilton, founder of the London-based 'China Dialogue', a bilingual website, and Manu Lekunze, lecturer in international relations at the University of Aberdeen.

(Photo: French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian delivers remarks at the unveiling of a model of the Statue of Liberty at the French Ambassador's residence in Washington, 14 July 2021. Credit: Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)