Reporters

France is easing out of lockdown, but for sufferers of long Covid battling the symptoms provoked by the virus is still an ongoing fight. Our reporters met an elite athlete, an entire family and a seven-year-old girl who are all suffering from the long-term after-effects of contracting Covid-19. Yet despite an urgent need for a better understanding of this new and complex condition, scientists in France are struggling to get public funding for research into long Covid.

President Joe Biden has pledged to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan by September 11. As a result, other Western nations are also downsizing and repatriating their forces. The stage is set for a return of the Taliban, 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. In this report for Arte and FRANCE 24, correspondents Margaux Benn and Solène Chalvon Fioriti offer an in-depth look at Taliban rule, with its schools and Court of Justice -- and a chilling foretaste of daily life under Islamic fundamentalists.

Pedro Pierluisi, who has been governor of Puerto Rico since January 2021, is pushing for the Caribbean archipelago to become the 51st US state. This would put an end to its current status of unincorporated territory and give more rights to its inhabitants. But while the election of Joe Biden seems to give hope to those who want US statehood, others would prefer Puerto Rico to become completely independent. Our regional correspondents Laurence Cuvillier and Matthieu Comin report.

Borno state, in northeastern Nigeria, has been ravaged by a deadly conflict between the military and Boko Haram jihadists for more than a decade. Last autumn, the authorities announced that they wanted to close the Borno refugee camps as they claimed the insurgency was almost eradicated. However, in recent months, deadly attacks have taken place on the outskirts of the regional capital Maiduguri. Our team met some of the two million displaced people who have fled the fighting.

Faced with Beijing's tightening grip on their city, more and more young Hongkongers have decided to leave to seek refuge abroad, many of them in the United Kingdom. FRANCE 24 followed Mui-Mui, a 15-year-old girl who decided to make the move, flying to London, where the local Hong Kong community continues to grow, week by week.

It's one of the most overlooked disasters in the world. In Madagascar, 1.5 million people are suffering from a serious food crisis and need emergency assistance. Several dozen people have already died of hunger. An unprecedented drought, which hit the south of the island in recent years and destroyed almost all of the crops, is mostly to blame. As the UN World Food Programme asks for emergency aid of €62.45 million, our correspondent Gaëlle Borgia travelled to Anosy, the region hardest hit by the crisis.

Located in the Indian Ocean, the 1,200 islands of the Maldives are famous for their crystal clear waters and pristine white sandy beaches. Yet this stunning archipelago risks being submerged by rising sea levels. At the current rate of global warming, 80 percent of the Maldives could become uninhabitable by 2050 as most of the land at one metre above sea level risks being submerged. The archipelago also faces another major problem: plastic pollution, which ends up on beaches and in the ocean, destroying the marine ecosystem. Our regional correspondents report.

On February 1, a military coup plunged Myanmar into a new spiral of violence, with the junta responding with a brutal, and often deadly, crackdown on the pro-democracy demonstrators who took to the streets to protest the takeover. More than 3,000 people have been arrested so far, including the country’s deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In France, ordinary citizens have chosen to help others, even if it means putting their own freedom, jobs and comfort at risk. They come from all walks of life and share the desire offer a helping hand to migrants from Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and elsewhere: both those who want to stay where they've landed and those hoping cross the Channel to reach the UK. Our team went to meet these "good Samaritans".

Despite being on the brink of collapse, the Lebanese economy is keeping a troublesome neighbour afloat: Bashar al-Assad's Syria. In order to dodge international sanctions on the Assad regime – notably the US-imposed Caesar Act – products such as food and petrol are being smuggled across the border into Syria on a massive scale. Our reporters James André and Mayssa Awad investigated a phenomenon that costs the Lebanese economy several million euros a day and prevents the international community from coming to its aid.