Bogor (Indonesia) (AFP) – Malaysia’s new Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim meets with Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo on his first foreign trip since winning a confidence vote and cementing his mandate last month.
Mexico City (AFP) – US President Joe Biden lands in Mexico City and receives a red-carpet welcome from his Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Biden arrives in Mexico for talks on migration and drug smuggling, as well as a North American leaders’ summit, after a politically charged stop at the border.
Banda Aceh (Indonesia) (AFP) – A wooden boat carrying nearly 200 Rohingya refugees, a majority of them women and children, has landed on Indonesia’s western coast, police say.
Tel Aviv (AFP) – Thousands of Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government, brandishing signs with slogans including “Democracy in danger” and “Together against fascism and apartheid” in the coastal city of Tel Aviv.
Beijing (AFP) – Friends and family embrace one another at Beijing airport’s international arrival hall, as China lifts quarantine requirements for inbound travellers, ending almost three years of self-imposed isolation even as the country battles a surge in Covid cases.
Riyadh (AFP) – Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo says it is ‘amazing’ to be at new club Al Nassr and describes the Saudi league as having ‘huge potential’ during a recent interview with the club. The forward could make his Saudi Arabian debut on January 22 after he was successfully registered by Al Nassr, a club source told AFP.
Chasiv Yar (Ukraine) (AFP) – Orthodox Christians in a battered eastern Ukrainian town hold a Christmas service in a basement shelter, vowing not to let war ruin the holiday.
Shanghai (AFP) – First passengers arrive in Shanghai as China lifts quarantine requirements for inbound travellers, ending almost three years of self-imposed isolation even as the country battles a surge in Covid cases. IMAGES
Culiacán (Mexico) (AFP) – Burnt out vehicles line the streets of Mexico’s northwestern city Culiacan after furious cartel members went on a rampage following the arrest of Ovidio Guzman, son of jailed drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The 32-year-old, nicknamed “El Raton” (The Mouse), had allegedly helped to run his father’s operations since the former Sinaloa cartel boss was extradited to the United States in 2017.
Leysin (Switzerland) (AFP) – “It’s like the snow in spring, but in January!” laments one skier in the Swiss resort of Leysin, as Europe’s record-breaking winter temperatures melt the snow from ski slopes in the Alps and Pyrenees.
Moscow (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin stands alone at a midnight service at a Kremlin church as he marks Orthodox Christmas darkened by Moscow’s assault on Ukraine. Putin attended the service at the Cathedral of the Annunciation, originally designed as a church for the Russian tsars.
Washington (AFP) – Republican favorite Kevin McCarthy is named speaker of the US House of Representatives as he quelled a fierce rebellion among his party’s ranks that had paralyzed the lower chamber of Congress for days.
