Eurotopics.net

The protests against the government's strict zero-Covid policy continue in several Chinese cities. There have also been calls for the resignation of President Xi Jinping. The protests were preceded by a fire in a residential building in the Xinjiang region that killed ten people. The strict lockdown currently in force there is likely to have delayed the rescue operation. Europe's press assesses the significance of the protests.

Between three and seven million people died of starvation in Ukraine in the winter of 1932-1933. The famine, known as the Holodomor ("killing by hunger"), was the result of a deliberate policy by Stalin. Among other measures, despite the crop failures of previous years large parts of the yields of Ukrainian farmers were confiscated and redirected to the cities. The current war is giving new impetus to efforts to have the Holodomor classified as genocide.

The heads of government of the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary met in the Slovakian city of Košice on Thursday. The focus was on Hungary, whose positions in foreign policy diverge considerably from those of its long-standing partners, especially on the issue of support for Ukraine. What did the meeting achieve, and is there still any point to the Viségrad format?

An old dispute has reignited in France: should bullfighting be abolished? A proposal to this effect has been submitted to the National Assembly by Aymeric Caron, a deputy from the left-wing party La France Insoumise. Although Caron withdrew his proposal on Thursday because it was subject to too many amendments, it will be discussed again in January. The national press is fiercely divided over the issue.

Nine months after the start of Russia's fullscale war against Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has praised the country's spirit of resistance in his daily video message. Even Russia's attacks on the country's energy infrastructure will "not break" Ukraine's will, he said. Europe's press analyses the situation as winter sets in.