Ex-servicemen seek involvement in battle against insurgency

Chad's interim parliament, built to prepare the country for civilian rule, has finally been announced after a five-month wait. But is the National Transition Council merely window dressing for the military junta?

In an interview for the November 2021 issue of Esquire magazine, Idris didn't discuss his symptoms but did admit that he was highly anxious when he first discovered he had the virus.

Despite vaccine hesitancy and inaccessibility, a push by a collective of NGOs, local networks and health volunteers has helped the inoculation drive and convinced people to accept the shots.

Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia, is home to immense cedars and firs, some of them 800 years old. It's here that an environmental battle is raging between the logging industry and defenders of the Fairy Creek forest. The fight over logging has gone all the way to British Columbia's Supreme Court and is resonating within Canadian society, with police accused of excessive force towards the environmental protesters. Our correspondents François Rihouay, Joanne Profeta and Laura McQuillan report.

A teenager in the United States was rescued after flashing a hand signal that was popularized on TikTok indicating domestic violence. Experts say sharing such resources on social media can help those most at risk.

It's expected to become one of the issues at stake in the ongoing trade war between the US and China. Rare earth elements are crucial to manufacturing phones, computers and wind turbines. China currently controls 90 percent of their production, but the US is also determined to extract these precious minerals and has just reopened a rare earth elements mine in California. Our France 2 colleagues report, with FRANCE 24's James Vasina.

In November, shortly before the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian authorities moved to close down one of the country's oldest and most influential NGOs, Memorial, which was dedicated to preserving the memory of Stalin-era repressions. Despite everything, the group's historians are determined to continue the fight to open up the archives of the Soviet secret services. FRANCE 24's Elena Volochine and Gulliver Cragg report, with illustrations by Sofiya Voznaya.

This week, Joe Biden made a passionate speech on voting rights, comparing that fight to the battle to end racial segregation in the 1960s. For the first time ever, the US president is directly pushing to get rid of a vote-blocking device in the Senate known as the filibuster. That requires close to two thirds of senators to pass a bill, as opposed to a simple majority. Biden, a former senator himself, says the voting rights issue is a "battle for America's soul".

A court in France ruled the US tech giant must show exactly how it combats online attacks. Anti-discrimination groups say the social media company drags its feet on removing discriminatory content.

As France's April presidential election approaches, the campaign is getting under way in earnest. In this edition of our new show, we focus on the French Communist Party attempting a political comeback and discuss at length the battle raging between Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen for leadership of the French far right.

The One Ocean Summit opens this Wednesday in the French port city of Brest. Seas and oceans cover around 70 percent of the surface of our planet, but continue to face an onslaught of problems, from pollution to rising temperatures. In the Maldives, coral reefs are dying because of climate change. However, locals are doing their best to save them. Our France 2 colleagues report, with FRANCE 24's Wassim Cornet.

We look at all the reactions from the printed, online and illustrated press as Russian troops encircle the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Also, a British intelligence company has intercepted video and audio recordings of Russian troops which suggest disarray and mayhem in the ranks. Plus, as Vladimir Putin moves to silence two independent media outlets, the Nobel Prize-winning Novaya Gazeta offers its space so journalists can keep reporting.