Revisited

The fall of the Berlin Wall, on November 9, 1989, has its rightful place in the history books. But a month earlier, it was a little further south, in Leipzig, that the first major protests took place in a show of force against the East German Communist regime. FRANCE 24’s reporters returned to the city where the "peaceful revolution" began.

For almost 50 years, Albania was so hermetically sealed under the Communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha that it was named the “little North Korea” of Europe. Between 1945 and 1991, at least 6,000 people are believed to have been executed and nearly 100,000 Albanians were interned in Gulag-style labour camps. Today, nearly 30 years on, Albania and its capital Tirana are gradually emerging from their isolation, but victims of the dictatorship are still demanding justice. FRANCE 24’s Juliette Lacharnay and Cécile Khindria report.

Forty-six years after Roe v. Wade, the historic US Supreme Court decision recognising the right to abortion, the issue continues to bitterly divide public opinion in the United States. Already undermined by local policies, this fundamental right is now threatened at the federal level, following the appointment of two conservative judges to the Supreme Court. FRANCE 24’s team reports.

It’s a series of white houses and narrow streets, all cascading down to the Mediterranean Sea. The Kasbah of Algiers, a UNESCO World Heritage site, usually attracts thousands of tourists each year from all over the world. But this year there have been fewer visitors, as the streets of Algiers fill with protesters twice a week. Our reporters have been to the Kasbah, a place that embodies both the splendour of Algerian heritage and the ills of its society.

Partially destroyed by the 2011 tsunami, the small Japanese coastal city of Kamaishi is one of the twelve host cities of the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Hosting the event has helped speed up Kamaishi’s reconstruction and has united the inhabitants around a common objective. Our team reports.

Our reporters returned to Lahore, the northern Pakistani city nicknamed the "pearl of Punjab". Pakistan's cultural capital has been hit hard in recent decades by frequent terror attacks. Today, Lahore's residents are hoping to revive its past splendour by banking on new technologies, art and a soothing of tensions between religious communities.

Five decades after Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the Moon, FRANCE 24 takes you inside NASA. Our reporters meet those who made the Apollo programme possible and take you to the middle of the Utah desert, where men and women are preparing the next step in space exploration.

In August 2014, the Islamic State group launched a surprise offensive against Iraqi Kurdistan and seized control of Sinjar, a city inhabited mainly by Yazidis. The members of this religious minority are considered heretics by the jihadists. The terrorists slaughtered the men and kidnapped the women and children. Today, the jihadists have left, but hundreds of Yazidis are still missing. Survivors are trying to rebuild their lives in Sinjar, although many are reluctant to return.

Thirty years ago, five months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Poland held its first free elections. The trade union Solidarity and its leader Lech Walesa won virtually all the seats as they swept to power, paving the way for the peaceful fall of the Communist regime. Our reporter Gulliver Cragg returned to the port city of Gdansk, where it all began.

Two years ago, the overseas department of French Guiana, located north of Brazil, was paralysed by unprecedented social unrest. Paris sent two ministers to douse the flames and promised several billion euros to develop France's largest overseas territory. But since then, have things changed? Have the hospitals, schools and prisons promised by the government materialised? Our reporters Fanny Lothaire and Florence Goisnard returned to French Guiana to find out.