Focus

Apr 15 2025 24 ep. 5 mins 188

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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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Meet the residents of Mont-Saint-Michel, France's medieval island

Apr 15 2025 5 mins

Mont-Saint-Michel, in the French region of Normandy, is more than just a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's also a tiny village, home to just 30 residents. But the tidal island welcomes around 3 million visitors a year. Our colleagues at France 2 take us behind the scenes to meet some of the people who call this iconic landmark home. They bring us this report, with FRANCE 24's Lauren

Five decades after Lebanon's civil war, battle-scarred buildings reflect ongoing trauma

Apr 14 2025 6 mins

Fifty years ago, Lebanon descended into one of the darkest periods in its modern history: the civil war. The brutal 15-year conflict was marked by sectarian violence and shifting front lines. In the capital Beirut, some buildings still bear the scars of battle. Others have been rebuilt, but the trauma remains in people's minds. Our correspondent Serge Berberi spoke to some of those

Library on US-Canadian border embodies growing divide over Trump's policies

Apr 11 2025 6 mins

Straddling the US-Canadian border, the Haskell Library has a unique location: it is situated in both the towns of Stanstead, Quebec and Derby Line, Vermont. Until now, an agreement allowed Canadians to use a stretch of pavement on the American side to access the library. But since a controversial visit by US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem back in January, US Border Protect

Italy's 'Land of Fires': Residents poisoned as mafia dumps toxic waste

Apr 09 2025 5 mins

The European Court of Human Rights recently ruled against the Italian state for failing to act and putting the lives of locals in danger. The case, brought by residents and NGOs from a region near Naples known as the "Land of Fires", came after they noticed an unusually high number of cancer diagnoses and high levels of pollution in the groundwater. The cause of the pollution was t

Coastal erosion: Brazil battles rising sea levels due to climate change

Apr 08 2025 6 mins

Brazil, which is hosting the COP30 summit in the Amazon in November, is facing a worrying rise in sea levels due to global warming. Sea levels in the village of Atafona, in the north of Rio de Janeiro state, could rise some 21cm by 2050, according to UN forecasts. The village is experiencing one of the world's most serious environmental disasters due to coastal erosion. Every year,

Estonian city of Narva prepares for potential Russian invasion

Apr 07 2025 4 mins

Located on the border with Russia, the Estonian city of Narva could be Russian President Vladimir Putin's ideal spot if he were to plan an invasion. Only a bridge separates the two countries. The population is divided: while some members of the town's Russian-speaking community are nostalgic for their Soviet-era past, others fear Moscow's war ambitions. In view of a potential attac

Cambodia leads global fight against landmines

Apr 04 2025 5 mins

Ravaged by 30 years of civil war, Cambodia is littered with anti-personnel mines. Every year, they kill and injure civilians, despite the government destroying 4 million landmines since the 1990s. Today, more than 5,000 people around the country are working to neutralise the millions of mines left buried in the ground, while a Belgian NGO has pioneered the use of rats to sniff them

Kurdish fighters hesitate to join Syria's vision of a unified army

Apr 03 2025 5 mins

On March 13, Syria's Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa approved a temporary constitutional declaration, setting the stage for a new regime. The declaration specifies that only the state can have an army. This has raised concerns for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-led military faction in northeastern Syria. Under an agreement signed with Damascus, the SDF will event

Thousands of websites created by AI: Unmasking the fake news generators

Apr 02 2025 5 mins

With the ever-growing and often overwhelming number of news outlets, it has become increasingly difficult to identify reliable sources. Artificial intelligence is likely to make matters worse, as more and more articles are now computer-generated and spread false information. These fake websites often have just one person at the helm, using artificial intelligence in the hope of ear

Brazil's African origin faiths under attack as Evangelicals carry out 'holy war'

Apr 01 2025 6 mins

In 2024, Brazil recorded an almost 70 percent year-on-year increase in cases of discrimination and attacks on religious practices, according to the ministry of human rights. The main victims are religions of African origin, such as Umbanda and Candomblé. Their followers are threatened and their religious temples destroyed and ransacked. This intolerance is fuelled by branches of e