Revisited

The Lebensborn programme, meaning spring or source of life, was one of the most secret and incredible projects of the regime in Nazi Germany. Its aim was to give birth to children who were seen as "perfect" in the eyes of the Nazis. These so-called Aryans – tall, blond and blue-eyed – were representatives of the "master race" that Adolf Hitler dreamed of. Our correspondent Anne Mailliet investigated this terrifying project and tracked down victims who are today more than 80 years old.

During the 2020 US presidential election, Arizona emerged as a pivotal state. Joe Biden won a narrow victory there, marking one of the rare occasions when this traditionally Republican state swung to the Democrats. In the aftermath of the election, while Donald Trump continued to claim victory, Arizona Republicans and the candidate's lawyers attempted to have the vote annulled in court – citing fraud and irregularities – but all these legal challenges were dismissed by the courts. Four years later, the state of Arizona remains more decisive than ever. Our reporters Valérie Defert and Pierrick Leurent followed the particularly tense campaign in Phoenix.

Forty years after his death, Ahmed Sékou Touré, the father of Guinea's independence, is more popular than ever. For young people across West Africa in search of a hero, Sékou Touré could be what they're looking for. But this rehabilitation of the country's past dictator glosses over the tens of thousands of deaths attributed to his regime, with access to the notorious Camp Boiro concentration camp now closed to victims' families. Our correspondent Sarah Sakho reports.

It's the biggest mystery and probably the biggest scandal to hit Mexico in the past decade. On September 26, 2014, in the southern town of Iguala, police officers fired on several buses carrying students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College. In the ensuing chaos, six people including three students were killed, while 43 other trainee teachers were taken away by the police, allegedly in cahoots with a local cartel. They were never seen alive again. Ten years on, the Mexican government and judicial system are unable to explain the tragedy. Our reporters Laurence Cuvillier, Matthieu Comin and Quentin Duval look back at this strange disappearance.

Dotting East Africa’s Swahili coast, Zanzibar, Lamu and Mombasa are synonymous with pristine waters and white sandy beaches. But many tourists are unaware that these UNESCO World Heritage Sites were the scene of a gruesome chapter in history. For centuries, the Swahili coast was central to the slave trade. 

The first flashpoint of Russia’s hybrid war in Donbas in eastern Ukraine, and one of the first Ukrainian cities to be occupied and then liberated back in 2014, Sloviansk today finds itself once again under threat from the Kremlin’s armies.

In Japan, they are known as "children of mixed blood": those born after 1945 to an American GI and a Japanese woman and abandoned due to stigma. Eighty years after the end of World War II, we went to meet some of these orphans to understand more about their painful past.

Twenty-two years ago, the Indian state of Gujarat erupted in violence. For several weeks from the end of February 2002, inter-communal violence led to the deaths of around 2,000 people, most of them Muslims. Entire neighbourhoods were burnt down and families massacred. This outpouring of hatred was sparked by a fire on a train on February 27, 2002 at Godhra station. Fifty-nine Hindu pilgrims were burnt alive and dozens of others seriously injured. Hindu fundamentalist organisations in the region immediately accused Muslim extremists of attacking the convoy. It was the start of the worst religious riots in India since independence in 1947. Two decades later, our team returned to Gujarat, which is still scarred by the tragedy.

The events of April 25, 1974 have left an indelible mark on the history of Portugal and Europe. That evening, a group of 200 left-leaning young Portuguese military captains walked out of their barracks and occupied strategic locations. Tired of the ravages of the dictatorship and colonisation, they won the active support of the people. The uprising was nicknamed the Carnation Revolution after the flowers that protesters placed in the soldiers' guns and tanks, in a rare example of a military coup being staged to install democracy. The dictatorship collapsed in a single day. But 50 years on, Portugal’s old demons are surfacing. Chega, a populist xenophobic party, quadrupled its number of MPs in March’s elections. In less than five years, it has become the country’s third-largest political force. FRANCE 24’s Céline Schmitt and Clara Le Nagard report, with Sarah Morris.

Six decades after the military coup that plunged Brazil into 21 years of dictatorship, the country is still struggling with its old demons. FRANCE 24’s team went to meet deeply divided Brazilians – Bolsonaro supporters who are nostalgic for the dictatorship and survivors and left-wingers who want to make sure that this dark period of history is not forgotten.