Merkel closes in on 4th term with familiar coalition ally

Authorities in Nigeria reject the conclusions of an independent report that found that security forces were behind the death of 11 people at an anti-police brutality protest last year. Also, South Africa's president calls for solidarity between countries in the face of travel bans following the discovery of the Omicron variant. And on World AIDS Day we take you to Kenya, where the prevalence of HIV has fallen drastically in the past two decades, but the fight against new infections remains a daily battle.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the UK socialite accused of grooming young girls for Jeffrey Epstein, has appeared in a New York court. Prosecutors say she gained the girls' trust by taking them to movies and sending them gifts.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban wants to limit teaching about homosexuality and transgender topics in schools. Hungarians will get the chance to vote on the issue, perhaps on the same day as next year's national election.

This week, we take you behind the scenes of one of Paris’ most beautiful landmarks: the Pantheon. A symbol of France’s values and collective memory, the mausoleum houses the remains of some of the country’s most esteemed men and women. On November 30, the Franco-American performer Josephine Baker will be reinterred there. But this selection requires more than just excellence. The choice is at the discretion of the president, and the reasons behind it are very political. FRANCE 24 explains.

Countries around the world are clamping down on international travel in an effort to hold the Omicron coronavirus variant at bay. Along with cutting air links to southern African countries, the travel bans have left thousands of travelers stranded.

Every morning in the Rwandan capital Kigali, long queues appear outside milk bars, where people come to socialise and unwind over large pints of ikivuguto, a fermented milk mixed with honey. Milk drinking became engrained in the country's culture as the result of a government policy initiated after the 1994 genocide to revive the economy and fight malnutrition. In 2006, the government set up the Girinka programme, in a bid to ensure that even the poorest families were able to afford a cow.