FRANCE24 — broadcast
20260806 223000 UTC
414 transcript segments
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[00:00:00] private bank, possibility for private investors to enter the
[00:00:03] capital of certain public companies and the progressive
[00:00:06] end of several state monopolies. The government
[00:00:10] assures that this is a sovereign decision, but for many
[00:00:13] observers, these announcements are mainly aimed at convincing
[00:00:17] Washington to ease the pressure, these
[00:00:20] measures are rather a guarantee addressed
[00:00:23] notably to the United States so that the latter loosen the grip, among
[00:00:27] other things, but it is also a guarantee, finally it is for the regime a way to ensure its
[00:00:31] stability and to ensure that
[00:00:34] it remains in place in this transition that will ultimately be
[00:00:37] controlled. The United Nations estimates that Cuba is now on the brink of
[00:00:41] disfigured people, the reunions humanitarian crisis, the island is more fragile than it has been for
[00:00:45] decades, even Donald Trump
[00:00:47] admits it.
[00:00:50] And yet, it is precisely at this moment that the president decides to put
[00:00:54] the island back at the center of his priorities, but why
[00:00:57] then?
[00:01:03] Trump's interests are first and foremost a strategy of hemispheric
[00:01:06] power, reactivating this Monroe Doctrine,
[00:01:10] regaining control, but this on the scale of all of Latin America, by supporting rather far-right
[00:01:14] governments, and Cuba remains a bit of a thorn in the side, the
[00:01:18] communist regime is just a stone's throw away. The first reason is therefore above all
[00:01:21] ideological, historically speaking, the objective of
[00:01:25] successive American administrations was above all to ensure
[00:01:28] the political support of Cuba.
[00:02:15] Ark scandal breaks out,
[00:02:30] First, the midterm elections are approaching in the United States, an important
[00:02:33] electoral deadline for Donald Trump whose popularity has
[00:02:37] plummeted in the polls in recent months, he had promised peace,
[00:02:40] but the conflict sparked with Iran has made him increasingly
[00:02:43] unpopular. Then, the United States today has nearly
[00:02:47] 2.5 million people of Cuban origin, a
[00:02:52] Nagashima still belongs to the very large part of whom live in Florida. Since the 1959
[00:02:55] revolution, more than 2 million Cubans have left the island, making
[00:02:59] this diaspora one of the most influential in the country, a significant part of
[00:03:04] 6pm in the heart of this community remains very opposed to the Havana regime and weighs heavily
[00:03:07] in Florida politics, a decisive state in the
[00:03:10] American presidential election. This
[00:03:13] community is embodied within the Trump administration by Secretary of State Marco
[00:03:17] Rubio. Marco Rubio
[00:03:19] editions to go around the represents an entire community in Florida
[00:03:23] of Cuban exiles who are very opposed to the normalization of
[00:03:27] the Cuban economy, from tourism relations with the regime. Born in Florida to Cuban parents, "exiled
[00:03:30] before the revolution, Marco Rubio grew up in Miami, in the heart of the
[00:03:34] Cuban-American community, and he built a large part of his
[00:03:37] political career on the Cuban issue.
[00:03:43] the emergence of a continent with
[00:03:51] If Donald Trump and Marco Rubio both advocate a hard line, their
[00:03:54] motivations are not quite the same. Rubio has
[00:03:58] long sought to provoke the fall of the communist regime, but Donald
[00:04:02] Trump mainly sees Cuba as a strategic issue for American
[00:04:06] interests and his interests far exceed
[00:04:09] politics.
[00:04:14] On the other hand, there is also the real estate magnate, whom we
[00:04:17] can think of in the person of Donald Trump, who had
[00:04:21] also, in an absolutely cynical way, marketed a Riviera
[00:04:24] in Gaza, a Trump Riviera in Gaza. Well, my Cuba is
[00:04:27] historically the Riviera of the United States.
[00:04:31] Before the revolution, Americans came to spend their holidays, invest in
[00:04:35] hotels, casinos or real estate. Donald Trump
[00:04:38] collapse, their daily life is himself already stated in
[00:04:40] 1999.
[00:04:47] But beyond the tourist destination, the island occupies a strategic position in
[00:04:50] the heart of the Caribbean, near the maritime routes connecting the Gulf of
[00:04:54] Mexico, the US coast and the Panama
[00:04:57] Canal, major crossing points for trade, but also for
[00:05:01] drug trafficking and other illegal activities.
[00:05:04] Ideology, domestic politics, economic and
[00:05:07] strategic interests, as we have seen, Donald Trump's motivations are
[00:05:11] multiple. The real question now is how far
[00:05:14] is he willing to
[00:05:15] go?
[00:05:22] First, there is the most extreme scenario, that of a
[00:05:25] military intervention. For several months, Donald Trump
[00:05:29] has been making numerous statements about his desire to take
[00:05:33] Cuba.
[00:05:36] statements that fuel speculation about a possible American
[00:05:40] intervention, what we can see is a... an
[00:05:42] activation of a military
[00:05:46] deployment around Cuba, in reality, Donald Trump
[00:05:49] has already deployed, so he already has a military deployment in the Caribbean since last
[00:05:53] summer, it's a bit like what preceded the capture
[00:05:56] of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, his kidnapping even
[00:06:00] under the guise of fighting drug trafficking in the Caribbean
[00:06:03] region. According to the BBC, five surveillance
[00:06:06] planes and three American drones have been regularly flying over the
[00:06:09] Cuban area since May 11. Militarily.
[00:06:12] The balance of power is largely in favor of the United States, despite
[00:06:16] the recent acquisition of several hundred drones, the Cuban army
[00:06:19] composed of about 50,000 soldiers, would absolutely
[00:06:23] not be able to stand up to the world's leading military power in a conventional
[00:06:26] war. Yet, the Cuban regime
[00:06:29] assures that it is ready to
[00:06:31] resist.
[00:06:37] To raise the disposition for the defense of our people in the interest of the war of
[00:06:41] all the people which is ours.
[00:07:12] a scenario comparable to that of Venezuela. After the capture
[00:07:16] of Nicolas Maduro, some imagine an operation targeting
[00:07:19] Raúl Castro, Fidel Castro's brother, still wanted by the
[00:07:23] United States, or the current president Miguel Díaz Canel.
[00:07:42] cares about Miguel Díaz Canel on the island or elsewhere, you know, he's a
[00:07:46] puppet um, and and he's he's not had any kind of
[00:07:50] strong presence in policy making, but there is a
[00:07:53] third, much more discreet option, on May
[00:07:56] 14, 2026, for the first time, a director of the CIA,
[00:08:00] the American intelligence agency, visited
[00:08:03] Cuba, officially no negotiations were announced,
[00:08:07] yet discussions are well underway between Washington and
[00:08:10] Havana, because... we have known for months now that there are
[00:08:14] indeed negotiations between Washington and
[00:08:17] Havana.
[00:08:25] But then, with whom is the United States really talking? Part of the
[00:08:28] answer could be found on the side of Gaesa, the powerful Cuban military
[00:08:32] conglomerate, born in the 90s. A true state within a
[00:08:35] state, it controls a very large part of the strategic sectors of
[00:08:40] to infrastructure,
[00:08:42] the exact interlocutors
[00:08:44] remain unknown, but one thing is certain, Washington continues to
[00:08:48] maintain pressure, in the United States we are
[00:08:52] ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our
[00:08:54] people and our countries, and
[00:08:57] currently the only thing standing in the
[00:09:01] way of a better future are those who
[00:09:04] control their country. In reality, everything
[00:09:07] indicates that the Trump administration is now prioritizing another
[00:09:11] strategy, rather than direct intervention, Washington seems
[00:09:14] to be relying on a gradual tightening of sanctions to deprive the
[00:09:17] regime of its resources and exacerbate the crisis.
[00:09:21] It's a mess.
[00:09:29] Right now, it seems that Donald Trump launched a
[00:09:32] policy of trying to deny Cuban
[00:09:35] resources, Cuban government resources, increasing sanctions
[00:09:39] including on individuals and companies, all with the idea of force.
[00:10:25] than ever alone in the face of US
[00:10:28] predation, as sanctions tighten and the crisis
[00:10:31] worsens, Washington seems to be relying on another
[00:10:34] strategy, pushing the Cuban regime to its limits
[00:10:38] until it hopes it will collapse on its own. It remains to
[00:10:41] be seen whether, as it has done repeatedly for more than
[00:10:45] 60 years, the Cuban government will once again manage to
[00:10:48] survive.
[00:11:23] Yeah, you have to have the mental strength for it.
[00:11:31] to make the youth of the neighborhood speak out, to confront them with their emotions, their
[00:11:34] fears, that was Youssouf Timera's challenge, a film actor, it is through
[00:11:38] the 7th art that he gently led dozens of young people to
[00:11:41] question themselves and open up. Nearly a year later, they released "Return
[00:11:44] to the Light," a short film in their image, with accents of collective
[00:11:48] therapy. We are in Ivry-sur- Seine, you are in no neighborhood,
[00:11:50] uh, information guys, needs each of you to make a
[00:11:54] film. really first degree guys, it's done as a team in film, if tomorrow I tell
[00:11:58] my friend I'm going to see a shrink he'll
[00:12:00] he'll laugh you act tough but you're
[00:12:04] really scared he'll laugh why are you scared that no one will
[00:12:07] say your name okay
[00:12:09] silence on set guys please sometimes you have to talk actually and
[00:12:13] action my name is Timera so the first name Youssouf
[00:12:17] right I'm an actor and right now we're doing an inter-municipal project the principle is
[00:12:20] to link cinema and mental health.
[00:12:24] At the youth center in the Montmousseau neighborhood, when I tell
[00:12:27] you to make your animal noises, it's the ritual
[00:12:30] every Wednesday, what sound does a kangaroo make, you figure it out, the
[00:12:34] Cinémarne workshops started a year ago, led by Youssouf,
[00:12:38] a former resident of the neighborhood,
[00:12:41] feline, wolf or
[00:12:44] raptor, the session is meant to be liberating, a total
[00:12:48] surprise.
[00:12:53] no looking, we don't care, there they
[00:12:56] are, they're doing things that are
[00:12:59] incoherent, but for me it's coherent, another objective, to create
[00:13:03] cohesion between the residents of two
[00:13:06] cities, Ivry and Atissements,
[00:13:09] well it feels good, it feels really
[00:13:11] good,
[00:13:15] after, for example, shouting, we don't shout
[00:13:17] every day, so the fact that we shout at that
[00:13:20] moment... we do something that
[00:13:23] we're not used to doing and it allows us to be more at ease after
[00:13:27] outside, well I can't express my emotions and so through
[00:13:31] theater I manage
[00:13:33] to be seen as someone strong,
[00:13:37] stable, the big brother, the pillar you can
[00:13:40] count on,
[00:13:42] but sometimes
[00:13:45] I want to let go of everything, to
[00:13:48] scream, to cry, but I
[00:13:50] can't. I can't.
[00:13:52] I was about 15 years old when I took theater classes
[00:13:56] to work on my addiction and I had dreams, frustrations because
[00:13:59] I couldn't string two sentences together without people
[00:14:03] understanding me because I spoke too fast. Come on, hello, come on, let's
[00:14:06] go, let's go, hello, come on, hello. It blocked me in a lot of things, even
[00:14:10] in my an emotional block
[00:14:14] too.
[00:14:14] For
[00:14:18] teenagers, it's very difficult to sit down and listen to a speech
[00:14:22] on mental health in daily contact with young people. He embarked on
[00:14:25] Youssouf's adventure with his eyes closed. This kind of tool is the best way
[00:14:29] to talk to young people and raise their awareness about it. Take something they like,
[00:14:33] mix it with something they need and the mayonnaise
[00:14:36] is bound to take. I couldn't
[00:14:39] channel my emotions and my
[00:14:42] energies and thanks to this course, it allowed me
[00:14:45] to learn how to play a role, even play it well and
[00:14:49] I also thank you because it allowed me to learn about myself and learn
[00:14:53] about you too.
[00:14:55] It's a remedy for many things, whether it's oral expression, being able to
[00:14:59] play with sincere emotions because we work on sincerity, yeah, what's
[00:15:03] good about Youssouf is that he's cruel, he's cruel, if he has to say things, he says
[00:15:07] them, if not, he doesn't say them, he thinks it's simple to know how to laugh
[00:15:10] sincerely, they can't laugh sincerely, and when
[00:15:14] I have to cry, oh well, that's even worse, I've seen my friends,
[00:15:17] if I had done theater, I would have, yo, and
[00:15:21] food for everyone, it's not just football, it's not just rap, it's not just sheet, there's everything in
[00:15:25] life. Professional actor Youssouf acts in
[00:15:27] many films and series.
[00:15:30] Congratulations, the best grade in
[00:15:35] the class. With Cinémarne, he directed
[00:15:39] "Under Influence" in 2025, a short film about the excesses of a young
[00:15:42] influencer.
[00:15:44] Do you want to see who's the boss?
[00:15:50] This morning, the collective's
[00:16:04] cameras were in the background of the city's health
[00:16:08] center for the filming of "Return to the Light".
[00:16:11] Volunteers, the actors were cast by Youssouf's team. I'm going to see
[00:16:14] Edy's psychologist. The psychiatrist tells Eddie that he will be released earlier and I am
[00:16:18] not happy at all because I feel that Eddie is still a little more fragile, I am still
[00:16:21] fragile, a student of the workshops, Nino Bonet
[00:16:25] plays Eddie, a teenager in psychological distress,
[00:16:28] I'm going back to school, I'm happy, I'm seeing my friends again, but after a
[00:16:32] while, I have to do something. very lively because my mother is dead.
[00:16:35] Okay, silence on set and action. How do you
[00:16:39] feel here? Better.
[00:16:43] Do you
[00:16:45] think you'll be able to go back to school, keep up
[00:16:48] with the pace and see the others? Yes, I
[00:16:51] think so. What we would like is to take it to the best festivals
[00:16:55] we can and I would also like to use it as an educational tool for young people and
[00:16:59] I would like it to be young people who present it from makeup
[00:17:02] to directing actors. Aren't you happy to take it? You're happy with your
[00:17:06] son, but you don't really know how to get him back. On set, everything
[00:17:10] is an opportunity to
[00:17:12] talk, Mr. Internet with Dad, but wasn't the solution rather to talk to his
[00:17:16] son? I was 23 when I lost my mother, you see, but I had a lot of people, my
[00:17:20] brothers, my sisters, my father, surrounded, you know, I don't see the
[00:17:23] dream of saying, "Yeah, you come to my class, you'll be an actor." Come to be
[00:17:27] fulfilled already, the most important thing is that they have
[00:17:30] fun, that's all.
[00:17:32] Every day, culture makes
[00:18:07] noise on France 24.
[00:18:10] On France 24, find four
[00:18:18] accessible information slots for the deaf
[00:18:22] and hard of hearing at 9am, Monday to Friday, and at 10am on the
[00:18:26] weekend. Washington asks the Kremlin leader, and I quote, to stop
[00:18:30] meddling in the American election. And every
[00:18:32] day, at 1pm in the Paris direct, inequalities have
[00:19:15] In the Seto Inland Sea of Japan,
[00:19:18] Nagashima Island had everything to be a little
[00:19:21] paradise.
[00:19:23] The government finally built a hell for thousands of patients like
[00:19:27] Shinji. When he landed in this port in
[00:19:30] 1948, escorted by a doctor, he was only 14
[00:19:34] years old.
[00:19:38] Since I arrived here without knowing anything, I was rather
[00:19:41] relaxed at first, but once I arrived, everyone told
[00:19:44] me that I would not be able to go home again.
[00:19:48] Shinji had contracted leprosy a
[00:19:51] year before his family sent him here. He then knew
[00:19:54] nothing about this disease that was about to deform his face and body
[00:19:57] by attacking his nerves. Once
[00:20:00] landed, suspected patients were locked up for a week in this
[00:20:04] building to be examined.
[00:20:07] At the time, we
[00:20:10] first proceeded to a disinfection here, because
[00:20:13] sometimes they arrived with lice, fleas or
[00:20:16] skin diseases, so there was no one really
[00:20:19] happy, everyone was crying, even the
[00:20:23] nurses wore rubber boots and
[00:20:26] masks made of several layers of protection.
[00:20:29] Like him, 5,000 children and
[00:20:31] adults were forcibly removed
[00:20:34] from their families and
[00:20:38] sent to this sanatorium, a
[00:20:41] confinement policy applied in... 17 years later, the real currency was
[00:20:45] introduced because from
[00:20:48] 1948, a new
[00:21:20] treatment allowed lepers to be cured and some patients were
[00:21:24] allowed to temporarily leave the island, a short-lived
[00:21:28] joy, because for these
[00:21:31] with their loved ones turned into a tragedy.
[00:21:35] When a leper was detected in a house, all members of his family
[00:21:38] were subjected to
[00:21:40] discrimination, it then became very difficult afterwards to
[00:21:44] accept his role. Rejected by their families, the cured
[00:21:47] lepers were also compelled by law to remain living on
[00:21:52] the island, so they built their own
[00:21:55] society, built
[00:21:59] roads or even
[00:22:02] schools for child patients, they created their own jobs,
[00:22:06] Shinji became
[00:22:09] a farmer, this is a photo from the time when I used to play
[00:22:12] baseball, there are no more fields today, but we often played matches.
[00:22:16] Shinji is now 91 years old, 77 of which
[00:22:20] he has spent here. He has known loneliness,
[00:22:24] but also laughter and love. His
[00:22:28] wife, now deceased, was also a patient. Like
[00:22:31] thousands of lepers, they were forced into
[00:22:35] sterilization. In 2024, this abusive
[00:22:38] practice was deemed unconstitutional by the Japanese
[00:22:41] Supreme Court, condemning the state to pay up to €8,000
[00:22:45] in compensation per victim. "It's difficult to say, but
[00:22:48] I felt like I was no longer
[00:22:51] truly a man, without children,
[00:22:55] Shinji can't even count on his nephews or nieces, his family
[00:22:58] never fully believed in his recovery, as evidenced by the last
[00:23:02] call with his mother to go see her in the
[00:23:05] hospital, she asked me, "Has your face returned
[00:23:08] to normal? Have your hands
[00:23:11] healed?" I repeated to her that what I had were sequelae,
[00:23:14] she said no, finally, "there's no need to
[00:23:18] come, it shouldn't be known."
[00:23:22] In 1996, nearly 50 years after the appearance of the first
[00:23:26] treatments and long legal battles, Japan finally
[00:23:29] authorized all lepers to leave the country's
[00:23:33] sanatoriums. A late victory, Shinji was then
[00:23:35] 61 years old, it was impossible to envision a future outside
[00:23:39] the island.
[00:23:42] state and only former patients and a few
[00:23:44] civil servants are allowed there.
[00:23:48] Here, the needs of former lepers are
[00:23:50] taken care of by the government, a new
[00:23:53] hospital has even been built, it has more
[00:23:56] doctors than patients.
[00:23:58] Shinji goes there several times a
[00:24:02] week.
[00:24:04] But above all, doctors
[00:24:14] monitor the after-effects. You just have
[00:24:16] to be careful with the
[00:24:19] weakened nerves that make the dishes more susceptible to
[00:24:23] infection. Apart from that, we can say that it has become
[00:24:26] almost an ordinary disease today.
[00:24:29] In total, more than half of the
[00:24:34] 5,000 patients died on this prison
[00:24:38] island. For many, the deaths are related
[00:24:40] to old age or other diseases rather than leprosy. There are only
[00:24:44] 66 left like Shinji
[00:24:48] to finish their days here.
[00:24:52] To understand the world, you have
[00:24:59] to live at the heart of events. From Jakarta
[00:25:01] to Beirut, passing through Kinshasa, Kiev or
[00:25:05] Washington. France 24's correspondents are
[00:25:08] everywhere. 200 correspondents who live near
[00:25:12] you. Their mission: to inform you everywhere
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[00:25:19] Objective,
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[00:25:25] verified facts, unmasked fake news, France
[00:25:28] 24, we are here, we are there and
[00:25:31] here to inform you.
[00:25:33] It was not the drought that led us to
[00:25:41] the family, but the Russians who took everything we had in the
[00:25:45] attic.
[00:25:47] "They came with a big truck, I can still
[00:25:50] see it, on it there were bags they had taken from other
[00:25:54] houses,
[00:25:55] they opened the door, they went
[00:25:58] up to the attic and they came down, came down with the
[00:26:01] beans and all the rest."
[00:26:04] Return ticket to the great
[00:26:08] Moldavian famine. October 2007, the Zoé's
[00:28:17] the people who entrusted you with the children, did they know they were going to France, yes or no,
[00:28:21] no, a couple of humanitarians claimed to offer
[00:28:24] a second chance to Darfur orphans, children
[00:28:28] who for the most part resided in Chad with their families. They say: you
[00:28:31] sold your children, but who sells their child, it's because
[00:28:35] they were promised an education that we accepted.
[00:28:39] It was a child theft, a
[00:28:43] real kidnapping,
[00:28:45] we heard many stories,
[00:28:47] we would have been taken to be exploited, maybe
[00:28:51] made to work in a factory, we were little, we didn't understand
[00:28:55] anything, 18 years later, meeting these
[00:28:58] fake orphans, they told us that... each child would receive
[00:29:02] €60,000 in damages and interest, but for now,
[00:29:04] they have received nothing.
[00:29:07] If the person admits their
[00:29:10] mistakes and asks for forgiveness, then you know
[00:29:12] that they have evolved,
[00:29:15] but if that same person refuses to admit their
[00:29:18] mistakes, then you cannot forgive, return
[00:29:21] tickets, the Zoé's Ark scandal, to watch on
[00:29:25] France 24. African news is right
[00:29:27] now on...
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[00:30:00] Good evening everyone and welcome if you join
[00:30:06] us on France 24, at the top of the news tonight, this new
[00:30:10] escalation in Yemen, the Houthi rebels claim responsibility for the attack that left at least
[00:30:13] 58 dead among the government forces supported by
[00:30:16] Riyadh, it is the deadliest attack since the 2022
[00:30:19] truce. In Syria, a bomb in a bus near Damascus
[00:30:22] kills two tonight, the attack occurred in Jaramana, a mainly
[00:30:26] Russian village, no claim has been made for the
[00:30:30] moment. Also in the news, an exceptional
[00:30:33] report filmed in Havana, Cuba, closer to the
[00:30:36] inhabitants between energy crisis and economic
[00:30:41] punctuated by trials. At least 58 soldiers killed in
[00:30:56] Yemen, the Houthi.