Reporters

With film shoots, star-studded festivals and modern studios, the conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia is sparing no expense to become a land of cinema. Showcasing the wonders of Saudi Arabia on the big screen also helps attract tourists and project a modern image of the country, which is usually better known for its serious attacks on personal freedoms. Young people are now rushing to multiplex cinemas created throughout the kingdom, which also welcome women – a situation that was unthinkable five years ago. Thomas Paga and Mathieu Beaudouin report.

In Ukraine, the justice system is now documenting potential war crimes committed by Russian forces, with the hope of one day seeing the perpetrators face justice. Like in all conflicts, women are the main victims of rape committed by the Russian occupiers, although many men have also suffered genital torture. The victims of these sexual crimes are often ashamed and find it very difficult to speak out. Some agreed to do so in this report by Ilioné Schultz and Marine Courtade.

As their country sinks deeper into a financial crisis, more Lebanese people depend on money sent by relatives living abroad to survive. Remittances sent by the Lebanese diaspora, one of the largest in the world, partly explain why Lebanon has not yet descended into social chaos or full-scale revolt, despite the country suffering from what the World Bank calls one of the worst financial crises since the mid-19th century. FRANCE 24's Chloé Domat and Sophie Guignon report.

One year after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, FRANCE 24 brings you a special 35-minute report, co-produced with Arte. Our reporter Gwendoline Debono went to meet resistants in the southern Kherson region, which was retaken from Russian forces last November. The clandestine actions of these ordinary citizens played a key role in the liberation of Kherson. Driven only by their conscience, these Ukrainian men and women managed to thwart the Kremlin's plans to annex their region to Russia. Behind Russian lines, Gwendoline Debono was also able to gain access to a Ukrainian military unit responsible for conducting military operations in enemy territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" on February 24, 2022, at 5am, to conquer Ukraine. The Kremlin strongman hoped to take the capital Kyiv in a few days and overthrow President Volodymyr Zelensky, without the West reacting. Far from being welcomed as liberators, the Russian soldiers were rapidly stopped and repelled. What was supposed to be a ‘blitzkrieg’ has turned into brutal trench warfare. Whole cities have been destroyed and millions of Ukrainians are now refugees. According to varying casualty tolls, tens or even hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or wounded on both sides. FRANCE 24 looks back at this brutal conflict.

Since the start of the war, tens of thousands of Muslims have either picked up arms or assisted in the war efforts in other ways. While most of these Muslims are of course Ukrainian, many are from Caucasus, and Chechnya in particular. Together with the Ukrainians, they are not only defending Ukraine and its values, but fighting a common enemy: Russia. FRANCE 24’s Raid Abu Zaideh and Anaïs Guérard report from the front line.

In November 2022, thousands of young Chinese people took to the streets to protest repeated Covid-19 lockdowns, constant PCR tests and to demand greater freedom. The movement was stifled in a few days and authorities abandoned their strict zero-Covid policy. But if China's youth took the risk to voice their anger, it's because their frustration goes well beyond Covid rules. FRANCE 24's Lou Kisiela, Antoine Morel and Yan Chen report.

In early 2022, in the Mexican city of Tijuana, two journalists were murdered less than a week apart. The killings of Margarito Martínez and Lourdes Maldonado represent the multiple dangers facing media professionals in Mexico, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. They are caught between the worlds of politics and organised crime, which sometimes work hand in hand. Journalists' calls for help seem to go unheeded, while the Mexican government vilifies them. FRANCE 24's Laurence Cuvillier and Matthieu Comin report from Tijuana.

In this edition on Holocaust Memorial Day, we discover a little-known chapter of French history. In 1943, the Germans had occupied the southern French port city of Marseille. With its working class, immigrant and Jewish neighbourhoods around the Old Port, the city had come to represent everything that Hitler and the Nazis hated. The Germans, who saw the Old Port neighbourhoods as a hotbed of the French Resistance, decided to make an example of Marseille.

In the United States, the electoral map is redrawn every 10 years in order to better reflect population changes. But often it's the party in charge in each state who oversees the remapping, giving them a chance to redraw districts to their advantage in future election outcomes. This practice is known as gerrymandering. In the state of Ohio, most state lawmakers are Republican, despite only a slim majority of Ohioans identifying as GOP voters. FRANCE 24’s Fanny Allard reports.