DW spoke to Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei about the protests in China against its extreme COVID lockdowns.

Cities across China have rolled back some Covid-19 restrictions, requiring less testing and allowing people to isolate at home instead of in quarantine centres. The authorities have been careful not to send any signal that the relaxing of rules were in any way a response to rare displays of public discontent.

Hundreds of people in New York have taken part in protest organised by French photographer and street artist JR against the Iranian regime.

China has said it will allow COVID patients with mild symptoms to isolate at home, it has also reduced the scope of lockdowns where cases are noticed and made regional travel easier. This follows widespread protests.

A distraction campaign is underway on Twitter. If users type location tags of major Chinese cities such as Beijing, their Twitter feed will be flooded with provocative "dating spam", in a bid to distract users away from images of the protests against Covid restrictions. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Jina Mahsa Amini's death in Iran sparked the country's biggest wave of protests in decades. Her family talks to DW and Der Spiegel about her life, her dreams and her death.

A three-day general strike is taking place in Iran this week. It's a show of defiance, as the anti-regime protest movement approaches its three-month mark with no sign of abating. On Monday, the strike was observed in dozens of Iranian cities, from the capital Tehran to Isfahan, Tabriz and the Kurdish regions.

Afghanistan's ultra-conservative Taliban leadership has announced what it says is the first public execution that has taken place since its return to power.

Iran has executed a prisoner convicted for a crime allegedly committed during the ongoing nationwide protests. Students vow to continue demonstrations and demand change.

The execution of an Iranian man on Thursday, the first linked to nationwide protests since September, has drawn sharp Western criticism. The UK also announced sanctions against individuals linked to Iran's judiciary.

Could the protests against the government's zero-COVID strategy trigger political reform? DW asks an expert on social change in urban China, Björn Alpermann.

Russia and Iran are collaborating more closely than ever in the areas of fighter jets and lethal drones, according to US intelligence. Moscow has rebuked Washington's assessment, as the invasion of Ukraine presses on.