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Manila (AFP) – Karaoke is wildly popular in the Philippines where singing machines can be found everywhere including cheap bars, small eateries or even tricycle terminals.

Amsterdam (AFP) – Hundreds of Amsterdam’s sex workers and residents protest against the transfer of their famed red light district to an out-of-town “erotic centre”, in what is seen as part of a battle for the city’s soul.

Idlib (Syria) (AFP) – Humanitarian aid workers gather in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib in support of Palestinians and to denounce Israel’s strikes in the Gaza Strip.

Washington (AFP) – US President Joe Biden says that both Hamas militants attacking Israel and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in his invasion of Urkaine are seeking to “annihilate” neighboring democracies. “Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common: They both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy,” Biden says in a rare televised address from the Oval Office.

Washington (AFP) – President Joe Biden exhorts the US Congress to approve urgent military support for Israel and Ukraine, saying the aid would boost US security “for generations.” “It is a smart investment that’s going to pay dividends for American security for generations. (It’ll) help us keep American troops out of harm’s way. (It’ll) help us build a world that is safer, more peaceful and more prosperous for our children and grandchildren,” Biden says.

Quito (AFP) – Parrots, monkeys, snakes and even jaguars have been seized from so-called “narco-zoos” in Ecuador, the private collections of powerful drug traffickers. The country has become a key logistical hub for cocaine exports to the United States and Europe and the exotic animal trend coincides with a rise in drug-related violence, according to police. The animals are bought as a show of “purchasing power, economic capacity” explains Darwin Robles, chief of the police environmental protection unit.

Tel Aviv (AFP) – Israelis in Tel Aviv hold a candlelit vigil for the victims of Palestinian militant group Hamas’ attack on southern Israel. “I came here to honour those who have fallen. It’s heart-breaking to see what’s happening here. I haven’t left the house much in the past week”, says one resident. More than 1,400 were killed and up to 203 taken hostage when Palestinian fighters breached the fortified Gaza border with Israel on 7 October.

Geneva (AFP) – “20 trucks is a drop in the ocean of need right now in Gaza,” says Michael Ryan, Executive Director, of the World Health Oragnisation’s Health Emergencies Programme, adding that “humanitarian assistance needs to move every day” from Egypt into the war-torn Gaza Strip. Hundreds of trucks full of supplies are still waiting on the Egyptian side of the border after US President Joe Biden struck a deal with Egypt and Israel to allow relief into Gaza, which is home to a population of 2.4 million people.

Kara-Bulak (Kyrgyzstan) (AFP) – “We sow tobacco to make extra money” says Askarbek Duisheyev, a farmer in Kyrgyzstan’s impoverished Batken province whose crops are used to produce nasvay chewing tobacco. The substance is cheaper than cigarettes and has become wildly popular in Central Asia, with its production now key to supporting the economies of regions like Batken. It has, however, also been linked with a number of health issues, like lip, throat and stomach cancer, leaving politicians with a difficult choice to make: eradicate a public health threat or turn a blind eye to a harmful economic cornerstone.

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – “Sometimes we wait for two hours and at the end we find out there is no water anymore,” says young Gazan boy Ahmad Al Mulla as he fills two bottles of water at a mosque in Gaza City. In response to Hamas’s deadly attack on 7 October, Israel has unleashed a relentless bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip that has flattened neighbourhoods, leaving survivors with dwindling supplies of food, water and fuel.

Skudenes (Norway) (AFP) – Underwater images captured by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research show what is believed to be the wreckage of the British submarine HMS Thistle off the coast of Norway. On April 10, 1940, HMS Thistle became the first British submarine to be sunk by the German navy.

Inle Lake (Myanmar) (AFP) – Thousands of Buddhists take to boats on Myanmar’s famed Inle Lake for the seventeen-day Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda festival as it returns after a three-year absence. The event sees four Buddha statues loaded onto a golden barge before being rowed through villages in the country’s eastern Shan state. This year, the festival is tinged with sadness as Myanmar continues to grapple with violence following a coup in 2021. According to a local monitoring group, the military’s crackdown on anti-coup fighters has resulted in more than 4,100 deaths and tens of thousands of arrests.