Smoke rises north of Bakhmut close to Soledar, eastern Ukraine, where heavy fighting is taking place as Russian forces try to capture the town. The defence of the village of Paraskoviivka, located north of Bakhmut, is “very strong”, according to a senior sergeant who warns that “there can be an operational encirclement of Bakhmut” if the Russian forces take the village and block the road to the town.
Pretoria (AFP) – US Treasury chief Janet Yellen meets with her South African counterpart Enoch Godongwana on the last stop of her African tour. The trip has been aimed at forging a new “mutually beneficial” economic strategy toward Africa, where countries are being aggressively courted by Russia and China.
Brazilian highliner Rafael Bridi walks 510 metres on a highline between two buildings in Sao Paulo at a height of 114 metres, beating the record of the longest crossing in an urban area in the Americas. The 35-year-old took 25 minutes to complete the nail-biting trip between the skyscrapers in the Vale do Anhangabaú area of the Brazilian metropolis.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gives a speech from a balcony at the Montevideo City Hall in front of local supporters after meeting his Uruguayan counterpart Luis Lacalle Pou. Lula began his first international tour with a visit to neighbours Argentina and Uruguay with the aim of restoring the South American powerhouse’s regional leadership after the administration of far-right Jair Bolsonaro.
Seoul (AFP) – Heavy snowfall and low temperatures grip the South Korean capital of Seoul following a cold weather warning by South Korea’s Meteorological Administration issued earlier this week. IMAGES
Sydney (AFP) – People are protesting in Sydney as the country debates whether it should recognise its long-suffering Indigenous population within the constitution. Australia Day on January 26 has traditionally celebrated the arrival of European settlers at Sydney Harbour in 1788, and typically been observed with beach parties and backyard barbecues. IMAGES
Kyoto (Japan) (AFP) – Tourists in Kyoto snap wintry scenes at shrines, and the city’s famous temples are covered in snow, as a winter storm hits large swathes of Japan.
Puno (Peru) (AFP) – Members of Peru’s Uru Indigenous community, who live on artificial floating islands and call themselves “people of the water,” hold a protest on boats floating in lake Titicaca, near the border with Bolivia, amid nationwide unrest that has left at least 46 people dead.
Berlin (AFP) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz approves the delivery of powerful German-made Leopard tanks to help Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion, a decision which has been hailed by Kyiv and its allies but slammed by Moscow.
Brokstedt (Germany) (AFP) – Images of the police and emergency services near a railway station in the town of Brokstedt, northern Germany, where — according to police — a suspect has been taken into custody after two people were killed and several others wounded in a knife attack on a regional train.
Cape Town (AFP) – Partisans of the South African main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), take to the streets to protest a prolonged energy crisis causing record power cuts in South Africa. Frequent blackouts, known as load-shedding, have burdened the country for years, with state-owned energy firm Eskom failing to keep pace with demand and maintain its ageing coal power infrastructure.
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – For tens of thousands of Ukrainians who rely on electric medical equipment to stay alive, the Russian strikes that regularly leave millions without power since October have been terrifying. Tetyana Venglinska had no choice but to hospitalise her 75-year-old mother Eva after three months of exhausting outages.
