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Shanghai (AFP) – As Chinese authorities report that the country’s population shrank last year for the first time in more than six decades, residents of Beijing and Shanghai give their views. Some see population decline as “inevitable” at a time when young people are increasingly choosing not to have children. The Chinese population stood at around 1,411,750,000 at the end of 2022, Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported, a decrease of 850,000 from the end of the previous year.

Athens (AFP) – People queue to pay their last respects to Greece’s former and last king, Constantine II, ahead of his funeral in Athens. Constantine, who died last week at the age of 82, was the king of Greece until 1973, when a military junta abolished the monarchy.

Darra Adamkhel (Pakistan) (AFP) – The town of Darra Adamkhel lies within Pakistan’s conservative tribal belt, where decades of militancy and drug-running in the surrounding mountains earned it a reputation as a “wild west” waypoint between Pakistan and Afghanistan. But a short walk away from the gun market, a town library is thriving.

Cusco (Peru) (AFP) – Dozens of peasants organise themselves in Cusco province to leave for Lima, bracing for a new rally against Peruvian President Dina Boluarte on Monday following weeks of deadly unrest. At least 42 people have died in five weeks of clashes between protesters and security forces, according to Peru’s human rights ombudsman. IMAGES

Tel Aviv (AFP) – On 14 January tens of thousands protested in Tel Aviv against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government, which critics say threatens Israeli democracy. His government has announced controversial measures like settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, social reforms that worry members and supporters of the LGBTQ community and a controversial plan to hand more powers to lawmakers in appointing judges and overriding Supreme Court decisions.

Al-Qassim (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) – One of the longest river valleys in Saudi Arabia, the Wadi Al-Rummah is overflowing with water. Stretching over almost 600 kilometres, the valley has flooded after two weeks of heavy rainfall in the eastern part of the Qassim region. The river valley had been almost dried up for years and partly blocked by encroaching sand dunes. of the Wadi Al-Rummah flooding

Stockholm (AFP) – Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, says a Russian strike on a residential block in Dnipro on Saturday the 14th of January, which killed at least 40 people, constitutes a “war crime”. “Innocent civilians, including children, lost their lives or were wounded in this horrific attack” he says, “let me be very clear, intentional attacks against civilians are war crimes”.

Pokhara (Nepal) (AFP) – Families of the victims of Nepal’s plane crash mourn outside a Pokhara hospital as they wait for the bodies of their loved ones to be released. The Yeti Airlines ATR 72 plummeted into a steep gorge, smashed into pieces and burst into flames with 72 people on board, as it approached the central city of Pokhara on Sunday. The cause of the crash is not yet known.

Palermo (Italy) (AFP) – Sicilian godfather Matteo Messina Denaro is escorted out of a police station by officers and transferred to a minivan. Denaro’s capture in Palermo ended a 30-year manhunt for Italy’s most wanted fugitive – a leading figure in Cosa Nostra, the real-life Sicilian crime syndicate depicted in the Godfather movies. The mobster was caught inside a health facility where he had gone for therapeutic treatment for his colon cancer.

Ruili (China) (AFP) – The Chinese city of Ruili on the southern border is slowly creaking back to life as the country ditches its zero-tolerance Covid strategy after years of strict lockdowns and other gruelling restrictions. Bordering Myanmar, the city was a key battleground in the fight to keep imported Covid cases out of China, with residents living through nearly a dozen lockdowns. Despite the harsh lockdowns, the residents are now optimistic that the city’s economy will recover, banking on the city’s famed jade and jewellery trade and closeness to Myanmar. Meanwhile in the Myanmar town of Muse, residents share their concerns over soaring Covid cases in China.

Tongi (Bangladesh) (AFP) – Hundreds of thousands of Muslims gather to pray in the Bangladeshi town of Tongi for Biswa Ijtema, the world’s second largest congregation of Muslims after the Hajj in Mecca.

Ruili (China) (AFP) – Shop owners in Ruili, a city in China’s southwestern Yunnan province bordering Myanmar, display and prepare Lunar New Year decorations in their storefronts, as the country prepares for the annual holiday. Ruili was one of the cities under near-constant lockdown before China decided to dismantle its zero-Covid policy in early December.