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Our Focus programme brings you exclusive reports from around the world. Every day at 8:45am Paris time.
672 Episodes
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On August 9, 1965, Singapore became an independent city-state. Despite having no natural resources, it now rivals some of the world's greatest nations. The key to its success: a strategic port that's now one of the planet's busiest economic hubs, and attractive financial policies that have turned it into a magnet for foreign capital. But this prosperity comes at a political price.
All over Egypt, clinics offering couples the option to choose the sex of their future child operate openly. Having at least one son is still considered essential by many Egyptians, especially in villages. While this practice is strictly prohibited across Europe, in Egypt, a legal grey area allows it to persist. IVF clinics take advantage of this legislative loophole to advertise their services to Egyptians, but also foreigners. FRANCE 24's Mathilde Delvigne reports, with Matthew Thompson.
As the world's second-largest producer of medication, India is facing increasing scrutiny over drug quality following deadly incidents involving Indian products. Is India's race to remain the "pharmacy of the world" coming at the cost of human lives? FRANCE 24's Khansa Juned and Lisa Gamonet report.
In Spain, property owners are increasingly turning to private companies to eject unwanted tenants or squatters – "okupas", as they’re dubbed in Spanish. The use of private firms to persuade squatters to leave properties is banned in some countries like France. The majority of illegal home occupiers are Spanish families or foreigners struggling to make ends meet, who don’t have anywhere else to live. FRANCE 24's Maude Petit-Jové and Sarah Morris report on the methods employed by these private companies, a symbol of Spain's worsening housing crisis.
In Karachi, Pakistan's economic capital and largest city, fear has become a commodity. In 2024, Forbes Advisor ranked Karachi as the second-most dangerous city in the world for tourists. Due to the ineffectiveness of law enforcement agencies in curbing this violence, private security companies are thriving and expanding their clientele beyond affluent residential areas to include schools, shopping malls and corporate headquarters. This rapidly expanding and largely unregulated private security sector is turning Karachi's chronic insecurity into a lucrative business. FRANCE 24's Shahzaib Wahlah, Sonia Ghezali and Ondine de Gaulle report.
Since returning to power in January, US President Donald Trump has pledged to deport tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants. Among them are 18,000 Indians who entered the country illegally. In February, the Trump administration sent the first group of these Indian migrants back on a US military plane. In total, more than 1,700 Indians have been deported so far this year. Most of them used what is popularly known as the "donkey route" – a long, roundabout journey designed to evade border controls. Our correspondents in India met one of the deportees who took that route. FRANCE 24's Navodita Kumari and Suhel Khan report.
Many people from LGBT minorities who are persecuted in their own countries have found refuge in Canada. The NGO Rainbow Railroad, which supports threatened sexual and gender minorities around the world, helps them settle there. Since the beginning of the year, it has already received 8,500 requests for help. The NGO is particularly concerned about the worsening situation for minorities in the United States since Donald Trump's return to the White House. It says that in June 2025, requests for assistance from the US increased tenfold from the previous year. FRANCE 24's Joanne Profeta et François Rihouay report from Toronto, with Fraser Jackson.
Eggs without chickens, milk without cows, and meat without slaughter: Singapore has emerged as Asia's hub for food innovation. The city-state of six million people imports 90 percent of its food and has less than 1 percent of arable land. Now, with an ambitious goal to produce 30 percent of its food domestically by 2030, Singapore has reinvented itself as a true laboratory for global food. In 2020, it became the first country to approve the sale of lab-grown meat. Massive government investments, a surge in startups and the arrival of lab-grown products on dinner tables are reshaping its food landscape.
On December 1, 2024, Belgium became the first European country to regulate prostitution through a formal employment contract. This reform goes further than a previous 2022 reform, which had already decriminalised prostitution in the country. The new legislation allows sex workers to benefit from independent status. But since its rollout, has the new law really had the desired effects? A few weeks after its entry into force, nine associations petitioned the Belgian Constitutional Court to annul the law, and they are still awaiting a decision. FRANCE 24's Alix Le Bourdon reports, with Dave Keating.
Spain recycles 15 percent of its wastewater, compared to less than 1 percent in neighbouring France. The Murcia region is a pioneer, recycling 98 percent of its wastewater, mainly for agriculture. It's a huge help during periods of drought. But while many people consider recycling wastewater the most sustainable way to manage the resource, some are worried about the effects on people's health. FRANCE 24's Maude Petit-Jové, Léa Le Denmat and Sarah Morris report from the Murcia region.
One of US President Donald Trump's first acts on his return to the White House was to suspend the activities of USAID, the United States Agency for International Development. The freeze has brought thousands of humanitarian programmes to an abrupt halt and the results have already been deadly. How are French NGOs managing to continue their work in this context? In DR Congo and France, our reporters Elena Volochine and Aurélie Bazzara-Kibangula met those bearing the brunt of these decisions.
India has witnessed its wettest May in 125 years, with torrential rains arriving well ahead of the usual monsoon season. Typically expected in early June, the monsoon arrived early this year, flooding cities across the country. Driven by a temperature contrast between the Indian Ocean and the Asian subcontinent, the seasonal rains account for nearly 70 percent of India's annual rainfall. But they also bring recurring floods, landslides and widespread disruption, particularly in urban areas. Now, climate change is intensifying the monsoon's impact, pushing India's already fragile infrastructure beyond its capacity. FRANCE 24’s Théo Prouvost and Lisa Gamonet report.
Every day, hundreds of Afghan refugee families in Pakistan are being deported back to their country. Since April 1, Islamabad has stepped up its deportations of migrants and refugees from Afghanistan. This wave of expulsions is part of the "Plan for the Repatriation of Foreigners in an Illegal Situation", implemented since October 2023 by the Pakistani authorities, who cite security reasons amid the resurgence of terrorist attacks in the country. Tens of thousands of Afghans have been deported as a result.
While some artists see artificial intelligence as an opportunity to push their creative boundaries and innovate, others are concerned about being replaced by machines. In the United States and Europe, many cultural figures are rallying against the illegal use of copyrighted works to design generative AI applications. In France, this is the case for voice actors. They are all calling for its use to finally be regulated so as not to jeopardise their work and livelihoods. FRANCE 24's Cécile Khindria and Juliette Lacharnay report.
It has been two years since violence erupted in India's northeastern state of Manipur between the Meitei and Kuki communities. Since then, more than 200 people have been killed and over 60,000 displaced. Despite the imposition of martial law and a heavy military presence, fresh clashes continue to haunt the region.
Brazil is home to over 4 million trans and non-binary people, the largest transgender population recorded anywhere. As the first country on the continent to legalise gay marriage, Brazil is seen as one of the most advanced in terms of LGBT rights. Yet it is also the country where the most trans people in the world are killed and raped. Fuelled by far-right discourse, evangelical fundamentalism is gaining ground. A number of churches, such as Libertos por Deus (Liberated by God) and its pastor Flavio Amaral, are setting up highly controversial conversion therapies. Our correspondent reports.
About 20 years ago, the Russian state began a large-scale operation to take control of Orthodox parishes all over Europe. Some of these had, over time, broken ties with the Moscow patriarchate. They're now the object of legal cases pitting the Russian Federation against local associations created to run these expatriate churches during the Soviet era. In April, a court in the French city of Nice ruled that a church and historic cemetery there rightfully belonged to Russia, rather than to the local cultural association. For some of its parishioners, seeing the French justice system side with the country waging war against Ukraine has been hard to accept. Descendants of the Russian tsars, on the other hand, welcome this decision. FRANCE 24's Elena Volochine reports.
On July 11, 1995, Srebrenica – a small Yugoslav spa town, now located in Bosnia and Herzegovina – became the site of Europe's last genocide of the 20th century. Thirty years later, the town, whose population is now 60 percent Bosniaks and 40 percent Serbs, has not regained its former glory and remains haunted by the memory of one of the worst crimes of the Yugoslav wars. FRANCE 24's Laurent Rouy, Edward Godsell and Nikola Vrzic report.
Exactly 40 years ago, a Greenpeace ship called the Rainbow Warrior was bombed in New Zealand, killing a photographer on board. It later emerged that the attack was carried out by France's foreign intelligence agency, the DGSE. Its aim was to stop the boat from disrupting nuclear tests being carried out off the coast of French Polynesia. Decades on from that testing, a parliamentary inquiry committee has been set up to investigate what France did to the region and the impact on victims. FRANCE 24's David Gilberg, Chloé Bach Chaouch and Jonathan Walsh report, with Lauren Bain.
This week marks six months since deadly wildfires tore through parts of Los Angeles, in the city's worst-ever disaster. The fire destroyed over 16,000 homes and businesses. Since then, the progress made has been staggering, but many hurdles remain on the road to recovery, on top of the trauma that has affected thousands of displaced residents. FRANCE 24's Pierrick Leurent and Wassim Cornet report.
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