World

It was Europe's first coronavirus hot spot. Now, Italy already has one of the strictest anti-infection regimes in the world. And with case numbers rising again, the country is barring unvaccinated citizens from much of public life.

Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan is in a Chinese prison for reporting from Wuhan during the height of the city's coronavirus outbreak in 2020. Her family says she is on hunger strike and could be near death. All calls for her release have gone unheeded.

The European rights body has said it will launch disciplinary action over Turkey's repeated refusal to comply with a 2019 ruling to release jailed activist Osman Kavala by the European Court of Human Rights.

Anti-racism campaigners were physically attacked and far-right Eric Zemmour put in a headlock as the presidential candidate's campaign got underway.

It was the first vaccine to be approved, and as the Russian jab is rolled out globally, it's providing welcome relief to countries such as India. But the low-cost inoculation is more of a prestige project for the Kremlin than an altruistic endeavour.

FRANCE 24 spoke to the EU's Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton about several issues, including the threat of the omicron Covid-19 variant worldwide; the possibility of easing intellectual property rules on vaccines to get more doses out to lower-income countries; and the state of relations between the European Union and the United Kingdom.

Citizens of Afghanistan were by far the biggest group of people applying for asylum in the EU, Switzerland and Norway in September 2021.

He's a relative political novice, but Péter Márki-Zay believes he can unseat one of Europe's longest-serving leaders: Viktor Orban. For the first time ever, all of Hungary's opposition parties have united to choose one candidate for the spring 2022 election via a primary. Márki-Zay, the mayor of Hódmezővásárhely (population 44,000), emerged as the winner in the second round run-off. He tells FRANCE 24 why he is standing and how he would lead Hungary.

India's federal government wants to deport Myanmar nationals entering the country after the military coup there, but the northeastern state of Mizoram wants political asylum for them.

The major US cable network has fired one of its top anchors after new revelations related to his brother. Ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo stepped down in August amid claims of sexual harassment.

Since France began its military withdrawal from Mali, many social media posts have been misleading. Reports assert that Mali is negotiating with the Russian private military company Wagner. One photo on Facebook from November 10 claims that a Wagner military instructor is training Malian soldiers. Another photo from November 20 claims that Mali received a delivery of military equipment from Russia. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Germany, the Czech Republic and the UK are the latest countries to confirm cases of the omicron variant. The new strain that was first detected in South Africa has prompted governments around the world to re-introduce travel restrictions.