India, the world's second-largest arms importer after Ukraine, now dreams of positioning itself as a country capable of producing and selling its own weapons abroad. New Delhi is now producing bullet-proof vests and helmets, night vision binoculars, drones, helicopters and even missiles. Since 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government has been pushing for self-reliance, in particular with its "Make in India" policy. Our correspondents report.

On March 17, 2020, France, like many other countries around the world, went into lockdown as Covid-19 rapidly spread. Five years on, many infected by the virus still suffer symptoms, a condition known as Long Covid. Complications vary, but often include exhaustion, muscle ache, regular fevers, heart conditions and difficulty concentrating. Some sufferers have seen their lives turned upside down, having had no choice but to give up work and face family members who question if their illness is “real”. In this edition of Focus, Gaëlle Fonseca and Claire Paccalin met with Long Covid sufferers and specialists at the Clinique du Parc near Montpellier searching for answers. 

40 Olympic-sized swimming pools. That’s the amount of wastewater that is being discharged every day into the sea around the Canary Islands. There are 400 waste discharge points on the islands and only a quarter of them are legal. There has been no proper planning for wastewater treatment despite the tourist boom and an increased population on the islands over the last few decades. Most of the islands’ wastewater is untreated or barely treated before being ejected into the sea through sometimes illegal channels. The authorities are trying to accelerate the rollout of state-of-the-art purification plants, but the situation remains very worrying. Our team went to the popular tourist island of Tenerife to find out more. Report by Armelle Exposito, Victoria David and Sarah Morris 

With a new immigration law in France, foreigners will now be required to pass a language exam if they wish to remain in the country. Tens of thousands will be affected by this decree, and could even risk being kicked out of the country if they do not meet the requisite level. This comes as in-person language courses have been reduced. For many who hold employment and have been living in the country for years, this new requirement could have a significant impact on their future in France. Report by FRANCE 2 (adapted by Lauren Bain).

Pakistan, one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, is also the sixth country with the highest number of teenage marriages in the world. A trend that has continued to worsen in recent years, partly due to climate change. In the southern province of Sindh, which is hit every summer by violent monsoon rains and record temperatures, young girls are often married off by their parents following climate disasters for financial gains. Among the surviving families of villages destroyed in the severe floods of 2022 that plunged a third of the country under water, child marriages have surged. Report by Shahzaib Wahlah and Sonia Ghezali, with the collaboration of Aftab Memon.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines has become the epicentre of online child sexual abuse. Clients, mostly Westerners, pay just a few dozen dollars to watch the live rape of a child. The perpetrators of these crimes are often family members – acts of incest monetised by extremely poor Filipinos, who can earn the equivalent of a year’s salary in just a few days. This phenomenon, marked by extreme violence, is fuelled by the country’s endemic poverty and easy internet access. The anonymity of online streaming also makes investigations more difficult. While authorities regularly arrest families that live-stream the rape of their children, it is far from enough to end the sexual exploitation of children online. William de Tamaris and Justin McCurry report.

"The worst European hotspot for PFAS" is located in Belgium, in the small town of Zwijndrecht, near Antwerp. There, for 25 years, the American factory 3M manufactured perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), one of the oldest of substances that is highly toxic to health and the environment. In Europe, there are an estimated 2,300 other such "hotspots" and a total of 23,000 polluted sites. A recent collaborative survey estimates the cost of decontamination at 100 billion euros per year. How is this decontamination carried out in practice? And what is the cost for residents already affected by one of the biggest environmental scandals? Alix Le Bourdon, Anna Joris and Dave Keating report.

As part of our coverage for International Women’s Day on the March 8, we are looking into the phenomenon of human trafficking from Africa to Europe. Thousands of women arrive in Italy, victims of sex-trafficking, after a gruelling journey across the Mediterranean. Once in Italy, many of them fall into the hands of prostitution rings. Obliged to reimburse huge debts, they find themselves prisoners of organised crime groups who force them into prostitution. FRANCE 24 correspondent Natalia Mendoza offers us an insight into the nightmare these women are going through, and the initiatives of humanitarian organisations that are trying to help them. Natalia Mendoza, Tommaso Marro, Bernard Bedarida, Charlotte Davan Wetton report. 

Falconry is an ancient art recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. In Qatar, where falconry symbolises nobility and prestige, the art is passed down from generation to generation. For Qataris, who invest heavily in the breeding and training of the birds of prey, falcons embody a centuries-old tradition of hunting and respect for nature. Léa Delfolie, Jules Pilorge and Kawther Abderrahmane report.

Sexual harassment and assault is a big problem on Japan's huge public transport system. One in 10 women aged 16 to 29 say they have been touched inappropriately on trains, according to the government’s first survey on the issue. But the actual number is likely to be much higher, as many women fear the consequences of reporting incidents to police. About 800 people are arrested for groping – known as "chikan" – in Tokyo every year. But many perpetrators get away with their crimes. In response, the police have launched an app to help them deal with the problem. FRANCE 24's Airi Futakuchi, Alexis Bregere, Mélodie Sforza and Justin McCurry report.