Stories and reports from fields where media attention has faded. Long-form investigations that take their time, chase reality, not shock — and never look away.
Analysis 🌍 International The largest World Cup in history opened on 11 June 2026: 48 teams, 104 matches, 16 host cities, three countries. But beyond the tournament, an unprecedented political, security and logistical apparatus is being put in place. Visas denied, extreme heat, $33,000 tickets, protests, ICE mobilisation: what the 2026 World Cup is already telling us about North America.
Investigation From 15 to 17 June 2026, the G7 is being held in Évian-les-Bains, in Haute-Savoie. But it is in Geneva, on the opposite shore of Lake Geneva, that the bulk of the summit's political contestation is being played out. The story of a transfer: 20,000 demonstrators, 600 black bloc, a multi-hour police kettle, and one question — who pays the costs of a French summit organised on the Swiss border?
On the ground On 30 May 2026, following PSG's Champions League final win, clashes and damage in Paris led to more than 890 arrests according to the 1 June official tally. Hour-by-hour reconstruction, methodology of the figures, profile of those detained: what we know, what we do not yet know.
Analysis Born in the Gulf of Benin, transposed to the Americas through the Atlantic slave trade, recognised as an official religion in Haiti since 2003: voodoo is one of the most practised Afro-American religions. And one of the most distorted by Western popular culture. History, doctrine, and untangling the clichés.
Analysis AZF in 2001, Lubrizol in 2019, Elkem Silicones in 2025. After every major industrial accident in France, inquiry reports identify prior warning signals — inspections without follow-up, formal notices left unanswered, earlier incidents on the same site. The country has around 1,300 sites classified under the Seveso directive. What these accidents have in common, and what they reveal.
Analysis $12 billion a year, hundreds of lion-breeding farms, tax havens in the booking circuit. Africa's private safari industry presents itself as a driver of conservation and local employment. The reality documented by government reports and recent investigations is less straightforward.
Analysis In France, the home is inviolable — except in cases provided by law. Three distinct legal frameworks allow the police to enter your home: judicial searches, administrative searches under a state of emergency, and the counter-terrorism home visit created in 2017. What each permits, what each forbids, and what you can refuse.
Analysis 239 people on board, no wreckage found, twelve years on. The latest Ocean Infinity mission ended on 23 January 2026 without result. A factual record of civil aviation's biggest mystery: what radar and satellite data establish, what the recovered debris confirms, and what no one still knows.
Analysis €501 billion in spending, €365 billion in revenue, a €134 billion deficit. France's 2026 budget was narrowly adopted in February after a four-month parliamentary marathon. What the state pays for, who pays the state, and where every euro of tax actually goes.
Analysis Since February 2025, Washington has carved out an exception: Afrikaners, South Africa's white minority, can come to the United States as refugees, at a time when almost all other admissions are frozen. Who are they, what does the land law cited actually say, and what do the data really show about the alleged persecution.
Analysis €20 million in fines against Clearview AI. 800 cameras tested during the Olympic Games. A Conseil d'État ruling handed down in January 2026. France has not authorised facial recognition in public spaces, but an adjacent infrastructure is being installed in stages. What the law says, what the state is testing, and why the debate is now about mass surveillance.
Investigation Three years after going public, the DZ Mafia has become the French name for modern narcobanditism. Recruited minors, international money laundering, prison-based command, institutional corruption: what judicial and journalistic sources actually describe, and how the French state has rewritten its response.
Analysis 98,883 surveillance requests reviewed in 2024, 24,308 people targeted, 17 million records in the main police file. France's legal framework for state surveillance stacks intelligence, administrative policing and judicial policing. A breakdown of what is permitted, controlled, contested.
Analysis May 2026, Cornusse: up to 40,000 people for a teknival on a military firing range, 600 gendarmes mobilised, a night of clashes. At the National Assembly, two pieces of legislation prepare an unprecedented hardening against free parties. State of a thirty-year stand-off.
Analysis €3.46 trillion of public debt, 115.6% of GDP, and €74 billion in interest payments forecast for 2026 — now the largest single line in France's national budget. How the country got here, and what it means for the next decade.
Investigation Sudan, Yemen, DRC, Myanmar, Haiti, the Sahel: six ignored conflicts. Over 30 million displaced, 100 aid workers killed, 28% funding for Yemen. A media silence that has never been so deafening.
Investigation $588 billion. That is what reconstructing Ukraine will cost over ten years, according to the World Bank — three times the country's GDP. Who is going to pay? What about the €300 billion in frozen Russian assets? And how do you stop corruption from devouring a historic rebuilding project? Inside one of the greatest economic challenges of the 21st century.
Analysis The world is doing better than you think: extreme poverty divided by four. Child mortality cut by 60%, 5.9 billion people connected to the Internet. But 61 armed conflicts in 2024, a record since 1946. A complex reality.
Analysis 1948, 1967, 1993, 2023, 2025: five dates to understand a conflict that has lasted for 78 years. History, actors, key figures, the fragile ceasefire and the recognition of Palestine by France. A neutral, jargon-free guide for anyone who finally wants to understand.
Analysis Seven cases, three deaths aboard the MV Hondius. The Andes strain confirmed by Geneva University Hospitals. Around the world, hantavirus killed Gene Hackman's wife in February 2025, fuels thousands of cases a year in China, and is quietly extending its territory in Europe. A primer on a virus that won't go away.
Analysis June 25, 2009: Michael Jackson dies at 50, weeks before a comeback tour. The coroner ruled it a propofol homicide; his physician was convicted. Seventeen years later, Antoine Fuqua's biopic is breaking records — and Dr. Conrad Murray is practicing medicine again.
Justice 87,126 inmates for 63,500 places. 6,875 mattresses on the floor. Nine European convictions. And one official phrase that says it all: “human warehouses.” Inside the chronic French prison crisis — and the 2026 SURE Act, which promises to address it for the first time at its root.
Investigation Of every €100 donated to a major French NGO, how much actually reaches the field? Between €62 and €90, depending on the organization. But behind these numbers lies a more complex accounting reality. A breakdown of where a donation truly travels — from hidden fees to recent scandals.
Drones An FPV drone costs $2,000. The missile that tries to intercept it costs $4 million. From Pokrovsk to the Black Sea, from Sudan to Tijuana: an investigation into the low-cost mutation that is rewriting the rules of war — and driving up the civilian death toll.
On the ground On 29 March 2026, Marseille's self-organised Carnaval de la Plaine gathered 14,000 people before tipping, at 9 p.m., into a contested police dispersal. With two official tallies that don't match and one carnival-goer's complaint for police violence, the prosecutor has called in France's police watchdog. A reconstruction of a night where accounts diverge.