Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

It’s ‘Orban or Europe’ in 2022 election, Hungary opposition frontrunner says

The leading candidate to spearhead the opposition challenge to Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Hungary’s parliamentary elections said on Wednesday the contest would be about “Orban or Europe”, with Hungary’s access to European Union funds at stake. In next year’s vote the nationalist Orban will, for the first time since he came to power in 2010, face a united front of opposition parties that includes the Socialists, the liberals and the formerly far-right – and now centre-right – Jobbik.

Exclusive-Stranded at Tajik sanatorium, pregnant Afghan pilot fears for unborn baby

She didn’t forget the prenatal vitamins – that was one of the few things this U.S.-trained Afghan pilot could grab from her Kabul airport office before she left the country aboard an Air Force plane during the Taliban takeover. But after fleeing for her life and that of her unborn child in August, the 29-year-old says she can’t even get an ultrasound or visit a hospital.

Hundreds throng passport office in Afghan capital

Hundreds of Afghans flocked to the passport office in Kabul on Wednesday, just a day after news that it would re-open this week to issue the documents, while Taliban security men had to beat back some in the crowd in efforts to maintain order.

Taliban officials have said the service will resume from Saturday, after being suspended since their takeover and the fall of the previous government in August, which stranded many of those desperate to flee the country.

EU restates Balkan membership guarantee but won’t say for when

The European Union’s 27 leaders promised future membership to their six Balkan neighbours on Wednesday, restating a pledge first made 18 years ago, but they brushed aside calls for a 2030 goal, fearing a backlash at home over migration. After weeks of deliberation, EU leaders agreed that Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania have a place in the world’s largest trading bloc if they fulfil the criteria on areas from judicial reform to economics.

Hong Kong leader unveils metropolis plan at ‘new start’ for development

Hong Kong is at a new start for development under a national security law imposed last year, leader Carrie Lam said on Wednesday as she unveiled plans for tackling a long-standing housing shortage in the Chinese-ruled city. Authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing have long blamed unaffordable housing in the former British colony for deep-rooted resentment that they say helped fuel anti-government protests in 2019.

Creators of molecule-building precision tools win Chemistry Nobel

German Benjamin List and Scottish-born David MacMillan won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for developing new tools for building molecules that have helped make new drugs and are more environmentally friendly. Their work on asymmetric organocatalysis, which the award-giving body described as “a new and ingenious tool for molecule building”, has also helped in the development of plastics, perfumes and flavours.

Pope says ashamed Church did not prioritise abuse victims in France

Pope Francis said on Wednesday he was saddened and ashamed by the Catholic Church’s inability to deal with sexual abuse of children in France and that the Church must make itself a “safe home for everyone”. “I would like to express to the victims my sadness, sorrow for the trauma they have suffered and also my shame, our shame, for the church’s inability, for too long, to put them at the centre of its concerns,” Francis said at his weekly general audience.

Shrugging off crises, UK PM Johnson delights party, annoys business

Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed to radically re-shape Britain on Wednesday, exhorting his Conservative Party faithful to help government press on with tackling regional inequality by ending “long term structural weaknesses” in the economy. In a speech to end his party’s annual conference, Johnson, known for his overarching optimism in all things, listed what he called the Conservatives’ successes and shrugged off fuel, food and industry crises as “merely a function of economic revival”.

Biden says he and China’s Xi agree to abide by Taiwan agreement

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he has spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping about Taiwan and they agreed to abide by the “Taiwan agreement”, as tensions have ratcheted up between Taipei and Beijing. “I’ve spoken with Xi about Taiwan. We agree … we’ll abide by the Taiwan agreement,” he said. “We made it clear that I don’t think he should be doing anything other than abiding by the agreement.”

U.S. security adviser Sullivan and China’s Yang hold talks in Zurich

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi began talks in Switzerland on Wednesday, in a bid to improve communication despite a deepening strategic rivalry and tensions over hotspots including Taiwan. A source close to the Zurich talks told Reuters that the closed-door meeting was under way at an airport hotel in the Swiss city, where Chinese and Western journalists gathered.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)