>> welcome back to the newsroom in paris. the french government announces new measures for travel between france and the u.k. with concerns over the rapidly spreading variant of covid. i'm its it could be dominant in europe within weeks, leaders are discussing how best to tackle the containment threat. in brussels, leaders are warning of consequences in the event russia invades ukraine. 100,000 russian troops are amassed on the border.

♪ >> good evening. the french health authorities have announced 60,000 new cases of covid over the last one he four hours. icu unit numbers are down from yesterday's figures. covid threatens to upend christmas plans for millions of people. the french government announced strict new measures for travel between france and the u.k. over the omicron variant concerns. as of saturday, travelers need in essential reason to travel to or from the u.k. and testing procedures are being tightened. in london, let's speak to

benedict, today, the british health authorities announced a record 88,376 more cases of covid. are any new measures being announced to go along with such an enormously high number? >> a day again, the second day in a row but no new measures. we just had some measures come in, that plan b. the prime minister only got it through the house of commons thanks to the labour party. over 88,000 new cases announced today. 146 more deaths, 28 days after a positive test. this will continue rising. those are the warnings we are given by england's chief medical officer who says the omicron

variant could rise incredibly fast. the better news is he thinks the peak could subside quickly due to boosters. we have 15 people in hospital with the omicron variant. professor whitty says the real number is much greater, we simply don't know the number of omicron infections completely at the moment, those people testing and reporting that and other people who won't. another record number, a positive one, of booster vaccines. 745,000 top up doses being given wednesday. that is ve much the message from the prime minisr sunday, get boosted now. the big worry is will the government managed to top that number i just gave you?

it really needs one million jobs a day -- jabs per day in order to accomplish that promise of offering every adult in the u.k. a booster jab by the end of the month. >> only at the end of november did we start talking about omicron. things happened fast. this may get worse? >> indeed, they are predicted to get worse before they get better. the omicron variant is dominant in london and set to become dominant in scotland and across the united kingdom in the next few days and what we know about it is how transmissible it is. people are passing it on to three or five people once they get it, that is a reproduction factor. you have christmas coming up with multigenerational gatherings that did not happen last year, lack of ventilation,

people getting together. the government is saying, we are not canceling anything. the chancellor of the exchequer is on his way back, shortened his trip because the aviation sector are crying out for help, wanting some sort of financial measures. so far the government has said no. >> thanks a lot. as well as discussing concerns about russia's intentions toward ukraine, the omicron variant set to make it to the agenda of the eu summit today amidst predictions this more contagious variant could be dominant in europe in a matter of weeks. with countries imposing containment measures, eu leaders are struggling to forge a united approach. >> with fear mounting in europe over the spread of the variant, the heads of state are rushing to coordinate a block wide

response to this latest phase. the strain could become europe's most dominant by mid-january. germany and outstrip have become -- germany and austria have said vaccines are fundamental to tackling be a threat -- tackling the threat. >> [speaking german bbc world news >> there is concern strict new measures across europe will undermine the covid certificate. the republic of ireland, portugal, italy and greece are now demanding a negative test, even for those vaccinated. with limits on non-essential travel. >> [speaking french]

>> travelers arriving in france will self-isolate for seven days and that will be lifted after 48 hours if a test conducted in france is negative. >> concerns have been growing in recent weeks russia, which has amassed 100,000 troops on the border with ukraine could be gearing up to launch an invasion. washington warned moscow of unprecedented sanctions in the event of an offensive. eu leaders are expected to issue a warning at their summit in brussels saying there will be massive consequences were russia to invade. following weeks of scandals and negative headlines, the british prime minister faces a fresh challenge today in the form of a by election. north structure has significantly been a safe seat for the conservatives.

a defeat would ise serious questions. on tuesday, a number of his own mp's rebelled against tighter covid restrictions. today's vote, which wraps up at 2300 hrs central european time, is increasingly viewed as a referendum on johnson. we expect to have results on that vote, friday. a french court is expected to give its verdict in the trial of a rwanda man accused in the complicity of the 1994 genocide. the former hotel driver is accused of transporting militiamen, who went on to massacre hundreds of people. the lawyers insist the charges are absurd and that in fact he saved the lives of many. >> he is accused of driving militiamen to the sites of their bloody massacres. he was a hotel driver in western rwanda at the time of the 1994

genocide. prosecutors say he was complicit in the slaughter by transporting the killers over three months. the former driver, married to a tutsi woman of the time, has denied the charges. they point to evidence saying he hid others at the risk of death. >> [speaking french] >> historians estimate 800,000 people were slaughtered during the genocide as the extremist government encouraged warns -- encouraged neighbors to wipeout neighbors. he was arrested for years later as part of an investigation triggered by an ngo that tax

people accused of complicity in the genocide. it is the third time a trial has taken place linked to the genocide in france. two former mayors in rwanda were convicted of turning a blind eye has 200,000 people who sought refuge in a church were hacked to death. >> just a footnote, we heard on-air, that former hotel driver who was accused of transporting militiamen has been given a jail sentence of 14 years. 14 years behind bars. it is time now for daily fact checking segment, truth or fake. i am joined by emerald maxwell. you are going to tell us about a video making the rounds who support bolsonaro. the former president of brazil,

he gets assaulted by french students? >> the leftist is currently leading in the polls ahead of the elections next year. he was in paris as part of european tour to restore his reputation after iraqi few years. -- after a rocky few years. he was visiting a university in pas where this offensive video emerged, rather two versions emerged. he share the moment when he was greeted by students performing a brazilian samba. let's have a look at a snippet. ♪

>> you can see he stops and watches for a while and then moves onut that was not the version being shared by bolsonaro supporters. they were sharing an alternative version with captions which makes, supposedly explains what is happening but makes it seem as if the group are shouting at e president. >> i know what that means. that is rude. >> it sort of sounds like that is what they are shouting. also, he is not so overly enthusiastic and that could lead want to believe maybe he was being assaulted. you cannot see his face of course. this version was shared widely on social media groups, attracting comments like "a fitting welcome." >> that wasn't what the band was

doing. >> it wasn't. the band came t on instagram and said, in english, because it was gaining traction, we are receiving messages regarding this. it is fake news. they are actually saying the name of a band. he was not assaulted during the show. observers also spoke to a member of the group, her name is clara, who said on the contrary, the band have been really looking forward to playing for the former president. the video was hijacked by pro-bolsonaro supporters. this video was initially fact checked by brazilian, several brazilian fact checking sites. they are working overtime these days because since 2018 when bolsonaro took power, fake news has quadrupled in brazil. it is a title wave of misinformation.

this is an example of it. it is a tiny part of a huge problem. it has been shared particularly on whatsapp, which is even harder to monitor than other social media platforms. in the quarterly it says brazil has some of the worlds highest usage rates of social media and is very polarized with low levels of trust in government and that makes it fertile ground for fake news. this goes all the way to the top. not only to government officials spread fake news but famously president bolsonaro himself, he was suspended by youtube in october for a week for sharing a false vaccine claim. this has heightened the debate over fake news in brazil and it gets murky and hard to decipher what is truth and false. >> elections next year, perhaps this is why his supporters are

doing overtime, putting out stuff to discredit the opposition. thank you very much indeed. that is it from us. i will be back in a quarter of an hour. stay tuned. ♪

>> if you have good friends in your corner, anything is possible. ♪ >> hello and welcome to france tony for's tv series show. we're delighted to welcome our guest who stars amongst others in the hit award-winning emily in paris. >> thank you for having me. >> you signed up for the show, which was a huge hit with 60 million households streaming it, were you expecting it to do so well and go on to a second series? >> of course not. we knew we had something good. we weren't expecting this. at that moment in the world people were hungry for a box of chocolate. they ate it. we are really happy.

darren star's talent made the difference. >> for anyone who has missed or resisted the temptation of watching emily in paris, what was season one like? >> emily cooper, twentysomething marketing exec from chicago who gets sent to work in paris despite the fact she does not speak a word of french. she falls into a love triangle with her very attractive neighbor and his girlfriend. she struggles to impress her french coworkers, most of all her boss who is played with perfect parisian aloofness. season one got mixed reviews for its clichéd image of paris. darren star responded by saying realism is clearly not the spirit of the show. it is a box of chocolate. with that in mind, let's take a look at the trailer for season 2. ♪ >> ♪ away we go ♪ away we go ♪

away we go ♪ >> you got the rest of your life. while you're here, follow love. make mistakes. if you're going to do paris for one year, for god sake do it right. >> what a good teaser. you play sylvie. in season one your relationship gets off to a rocky start. how to zip and out in season 2? >> in this season i'm becoming more and more her mentor in a very subtle and i would say, the serious way. it is like the older feminine trying to put the younger

feminine through obstacles so she will grow and shed that skin she came with. it is the kind of relationship we have until the end, i hope season three if there is one will have and go even further. it is really interesting to play that. >> philippine, sylvie is one of my favorite characters. she is that quintessential aloof, sexy parisian woman. do you relate to her? >> maybe. [laughter] i don't really consciously. i was raised in a family with a mother who worked in fashion. i have seen these women all my teenage years. i know what they are like. i know how tough they can be but how vulnerable they are. it was really interesting to get into that skin, yeah. >> season one got a little backlash with people saying it is cliché. did you feel that way? >> cliché is a nice territory to

explore. it gives you a lot of freedom. people don't understand darren star has never been realistic about anything. he has stylized everything. you watch sex and the city, new york is not the new york new yorkers knew at that time. paris also. it is beautiful to see a beautiful paris. >> apparently there is more french language in the show. tell us more. >> darren wanted to make it rooted more into the french culture, so also asking the international public to bear with us and except our language, which is nice. we are really more ourselves because we do change personality when we are in different linkages. it is infant -- it is interesting to have that and to

see how they change when they speak french. it was nice. >> another central role is fashion in the series. how french is the style? >> the french characters are frencher than the other ones. there really more into parisian fashion that has a lot of coats whereas emily, mindy are freer and can explore a lot more craziness that probably we would never wear in paris. altogether, the great kind of overview of whatever is happening anywhere in the world. i really love the fact they are also different. >> what was it like working with that diverse american crew? did any cultural differences come up on set? >> they are totally there. that is what the show is about.

the authors experienced that by living in paris and working while they were in paris. came across all these things they put in the show. there is a huge gap between the cultures yet we understand each other. we also kind of you know -- yeah. it is fun. we have to bridge the gap. that is the interesting thing. >> darren star is famously behind sex and the city which ran from 1998 to 2004. three of the four women are back in a spinoff or hbo max. >> ♪ >> you are not happy with who you are? step out of that box and change. ♪ >> ♪ higher ♪ how i want to be ♪ ♪ >> just like that, after all the years and all the changes, you

are still you. >> allison, can you tell us about the return of charlotte, miranda and carrie? >> the absence of samantha is sorely felt. that would always be a big thing to overcome. the reboot feels like a forced attempt to come back from criticism about the original show's lack of diversity. they added for nonwhe supporting characters which critics have supported out only exist with the purpose of educating and interacting with the three white characters. that said, to paraphrase carrie from episode one, i like to see the condom as half-full. while it is awkward to adapt to this new world, i see the potential for it to be funny and interesting. there is also that purely nostalgia driven joy at seeing the entire cast reunited.

there is a major twist at the end of episode one that puts the show in new territory. for me that was a game changer. finally, it is rare to get a show about women in their 50's. that is something sarah jessica parker said she really wanted to explore. >> really interesting chapter of people's lives. this is often the chanhe, loss, rethinking what you thought you wanted, who you are, who you want to be with, how you want to spend your time. i am not surprised there are pretty freaking interesting stories to tell. >> kiersten davis, who play charlotte, complained about the backlash the cast got over the appearance and age of the female cast. obviously we would like to think there is more space for various age groups in the industry. what is your experience? >> it is daunting and it is more in america than in europe but it

is slowly getting there. very slowly. it is weird in society that does not allow anyone to age, especially women. my daughter who is 30 told me, i don't want to live in a society where women are not allowed to age. it is a real problem. we have to accept that. >> absolutely. to end the show, you have a few treats for us? >> cheesy holiday rom, have been around quite a long time. streaming services have started developing them into entire series. amazon prime has one out this year called "with love" which centers around siblings and their extended mexican-american family. netflix brings us a second season of the south african show "how to ruin christmas." also we have a french rom, on netflix, christmas flow. it is about a misogynistic wrapper and a feminist

journalist who have every reason to hate each other but the more they cross paths, the more it becomes the opposite. >> we will definitely take a look. thank you so much for coming. >> thank you for having me. >> we will remind our viewers that emily in paris season 2 is on netflix from the 22nd of december. follow culture news on france24.com and on social media. more news on france 24 just after this. >> [speaking french] ♪ >> [speaking french] ♪

>> well-known stars of french heritage. french genius and france harbors many other hidden treasures. the arts, gastronomy, architecture as well as nature's wonders. come along with france 24, discover france's living heritage. meet these people whose passion for their professions preserve and drive french heritage. >> you are here on france 24 and france24.com. ♪

■í÷í÷í÷í÷■p

12/16/21 12/16/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> with omicron,e are on t ed of a cliff. amy: as the coronavirus variant omicron spreads across the road at an unprecedented rate, a group of vaccine experts has just released a list of over 100