Inside the Americas

In this edition we head to Ecuador, which has the highest annual rate of deforestation of any country in the Western Hemisphere. In the province of Esmeraldas, many locals are trying to replant their own trees in order to help make a living, either by selling the fruit or the wood. And as strange as it may seem, they're being backed by the biggest deforestation company in the region. Our correspondent Thomas Nicolon reports.

Deb Haaland is the first Native American cabinet secretary in US history. The politician from New Mexico has taken the helm of the agency that oversees Native Affairs. One Democratic lawmaker said Haaland leading the department is “history coming full circle”.

In Brazil, a Supreme Court judge has annulled two of the corruption convictions hanging over former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The decision now puts him back in the political arena and, some say, on a new path to the presidency in next year's election. We take a closer look with FRANCE 24's Olivia Salazar-Winspear.

Joe Biden is moving up America's vaccine calendar by two months. The US president says there will be enough vaccines for all US adults by the end of May. Despite that good news, both Biden and America's top disease expert Anthony Fauci say it's still too early to relax Covid-19 restrictions. That didn't stop the largest state of Texas however from making moves to get back to normal. Governor Greg Abbott says that as of next week, businesses can work at full capacity and Texans will no longer be required to wear face masks.

Lawmakers in Virginia have voted to abolish the death penalty. The move marks the end of a long history of capital punishment in the state. Virginia currently has the highest number of executions in the United States. We take a closer look with FRANCE 24's Valérie Dekimpe.

In Peru, both the country's foreign minister and health minister have resigned over a vaccination scandal. Almost 500 Peruvian officials secretly received the Covid-19 vaccine before it was officially rolled out. We take a closer look.

In the US, the Covid-19 vaccine programme is being rolled out, but the shots are not getting into the arms of many people who need it most, particularly Black Americans. They make up just 13 percent of the US population, but account for more than 15 percent of Covid-19 deaths. And desite promises to increase equality in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, little has been done to improve vaccine access in disadvantaged neighbourhoods where the majority of essential workers live. Our Los Angeles correspondents Valérie Defert, Pierrick Leurent and Ryan Thompson report.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is a new Republican congresswoman from Georgia, just one of hundreds in the House. But in the words of Senator Mitch McConnell, she's behind "loony lies" that could be a "cancer" for the GOP. Greene is symbolic of the power struggle within the party and her fate is now in the hands of House Republicans who are deciding whether to punish her for extreme comments she made before winning her seat. We take a closer look.

The US is the country worst hit by Covid-19 and Americans make up one in four of the world's confirmed cases. President Joe Biden is working to lower that number by ramping up the heavily delayed delivery of vaccines. He says he wants 300 million Americans vaccinated by late summer or the autumn. But it's a steep road ahead. Current vaccine shortages have been so severe that tens of thousands of appointments have been cancelled for people hoping to get their first shot.

As Joe Biden becomes the new president of the United States after a bitterly contested election, Inside the Americas takes you to Washington and to his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. In this special edition of the show, our team meets some of the people who made Biden the man he is today. We also discover the places where the president-to-be spent his time, such as the train that took him to Washington every day when he was a young senator.