EU chief diplomat calls for Venezuela elections

Since August, a new British ambassador to France has been in post. Menna Rawlings has taken up the job at a time when the two countries have butted heads over various issues, from migration to Northern Ireland to fishing, while still bound together on other international issues – including the COP26 climate summit and as permanent members of the UN Security Council. Speaking to FRANCE 24 in a week when around 1,000 undocumented migrants crossed from France to England in small boats in a single day, she defended British border policy and spoke out about the ongoing disputes over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Argentines dealt a severe blow to President Alberto Fernandez's ruling coalition amid widespread discontent over the deepening economic crisis and spiraling inflation.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted a conference on Libya that saw world powers back December elections. The participating countries threatened sanctions for any actors who might seek to derail the plans.

Twenty years ago, Portugal was plagued with heroin addiction and HIV infections. The country decided to take a new approach to the problem, becoming the first in the world to decriminalise drug taking. Since then, drug users are no longer treated as criminals to be locked up in jail, but as people who need medical care and supervision. The gamble has paid off, as our team found out.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, said it was time to reassess Western policy vis-à-vis Syria and that the approach followed in recent years had failed. “The only end to the crisis is a political solution,” he added. The Jordanian minister also hinted that his country was favourable to bringing Syria back into the Arab League.

On 19th December, Chile heads to the polls to choose a new president. The run-up to the elections have been deeply polarising, and the country's feminists fear that the unexpected frontrunner - far-right lawyer José Antonio Kast - could set women rights back by decades.

Migration, development, and security are still the focus of the incoming German government's Africa policy. But the private sector feels snubbed by the government's new coalition deal.

President Joe Biden had scrapped the Trump-era policy on his first day in office. But a Texas judge has now ordered its reinstatement.

In tonight's edition: Tunisia's president says the democratically-elected parliament will remain suspended for at least another year. Kais Saied also announced a referendum and elections for 2022.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has withdrawn his candidacy for the Senate in the country's May 2022 elections, according to the election commission. He reaches term limit as president in 2022.

After recording the lowest turnout rate in Hong Kong's electoral history on Sunday, critics have said the city's legislative council elections are just a rubber stamp for Beijing.

After much speculation, Libya's polls have been postponed. Organisers said it’s ‘impossible’ to hold the vote on Friday. The electoral commission has suggested January 24th as the new deadline. A Tunisian court sentences an ex-President Moncef Marzouki to four years in prison. He’s a vocal critic of the current leader, who has described current leader Kais Saied as a "dictator". Nigeria destroys more than million doses of expired Covid vaccines. As rich countries donate jabs with short shelf life, poorer nations continue their fight against vaccine hesitancy.