Focus

Jan 31 2025 24 ep. 5 mins 172

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Our Focus programme brings you exclusive reports from around the world. Every day at 8:45am Paris time.

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Ivory Coast seeks to protect endangered pygmy hippos

Jan 31 2025 5 mins

He's small, cute and viral: the baby pygmy hippo Moo Deng, housed in a Thai zoo, has become the star of millions of posts, memes and videos around the world. But in the wild, the pygmy hippopotamus is on the brink of extinction. Of the 2,500 remaining specimens, the majority live in Taï National Park in Ivory Coast, the largest – and one of the last – primary forests in West A

South Korea's webtoon comics have readers hooked

Jan 30 2025 5 mins

South Korea is seeing a boom in webtoons – short episodic comics that are designed to be read on smartphones. They are hugely popular in the country, where some 35 million people read at least one episode of a webtoon every week. Amid this success at home, webtoon creators are now turning their attention to international markets, including English-speaking countries and France. F

With organic cotton, India bets on textile industry's green transition

Jan 29 2025 6 mins

India is the world's leading organic cotton producer, controlling 51 percent of global production. The country has set its sights on becoming a major player in the textile industry's green transition – a market that's projected to grow 10 percent by 2026. However, to succeed in making a long-term commitment to sustainable fashion, the country must overcome logistical challenges a

Japan tackles dementia crisis as super-ageing society sees cases soar

Jan 28 2025 5 mins

Japan is one of the fastest-ageing societies in the world, with almost a third of its population over 65 years old. As a result, the county is seeing more and more cases of dementia each year: almost 5 million people are now living with the condition. In response, the government is taking the problem seriously and has formed a special committee in a bid to tackle the crisis. Our co

When Paris's Hotel Lutetia hosted concentration camp survivors

Jan 27 2025 6 mins

Eighty years ago, on January 27, 1945, the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp was liberated by Soviet troops. During the following weeks and months, French survivors of the camps made their way home. A third of them passed through the Hotel Lutetia in Paris, a luxury hotel that was requisitioned by the French state to host the former prisoners. Many families we

In Germany, the hunt for Nazis is drawing to a close

Jan 26 2025 6 mins

As Germany commemorates the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps, FRANCE 24 looks at the slowly-ending hunt for Nazis in the country. After the Nuremberg trials it seemed as if the trail had gone cold on Nazi war criminals. And it was only in 2009 that the hunt for Nazis resumed with the trial of John Demjanjuk. Anne Mailliet, François Rihouay, Willy Mahl

Nazi plunder: French museums to return looted artwork to Jewish heirs

Jan 25 2025 6 mins

Eighty years ago, on January 27, 1945, the extermination and concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Soviets. Of the 69,000 Jews deported from France, only 5 percent survived. During World War II, the Nazis looted 100,000 items of cultural property belonging to Jewish families. After the Liberation, some 60,000 stolen works of art were repatriated to France, and

Rise of anti-Semitism: Germany's Holocaust survivors speak out against far right

Jan 24 2025 6 mins

80 years after the liberation of Nazi concentration camps, the last survivors of the Holocaust are again speaking out against the rise of the far right in Germany. With their words and testimonies as their only weapons, the country's last surviving witnesses to the atrocities committed by Nazis continue the fight against anti-Semitism.

In Moldova's Transnistria region, residents survive without heating in middle of winter

Jan 23 2025 5 mins

Since January 1, Moldova has been grappling with an energy and political crisis whose outcome remains uncertain. In the middle of winter, Gazprom stopped supplying gas to Transnistria, a self-proclaimed independent Moldovan region run by pro-Moscow separatists, after a transit contract with Ukraine expired.

In Muslim-majority Indonesia, island of Flores trains priests for rest of the world

Jan 21 2025 5 mins

In the Muslim-majority country of Indonesia, the island of Flores is something of an exception. Located in the south of the archipelago, its population is 70 percent Catholic and many young people hope to become men of the cloth. Every year, Flores trains priests who go on to serve around the world: in the United States, Africa, Europe and South America. Indonesian priests have ear