Shanghai (AFP) – Ambulances carrying masked patients arrive outside the emergency department of Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai. An explosion of Covid-19 cases in China has overwhelmed the healthcare system, and crematoriums across the country are struggling to deal with the influx of bodies. IMAGES
Choshi (Japan) (AFP) – In the driver’s seat of a two-carriage train, Katsunori Takemoto puts on his white gloves and checks the antiquated gauges before setting out alongside cabbage fields in Japan’s rural Chiba. Like many small railway lines across Japan’s countryside, the 60-year-old trains that ply this route are a loss-maker, but Takemoto has found a way to keep the business afloat.
La Paz (AFP) – Car convoy allegedly carrying Luis Fernando Camacho — Bolivian key opposition figure and governor of the economic powerhouse Santa Cruz region — arrives at a police station in La Paz as people loyal to Bolivian president Luis Arce gather outside. IMAGES
Buffalo (AFP) – Aerial shots of Buffalo, New York, in the aftermath of a monster storm that killed dozens in the United States over the Christmas weekend.
It’s a winter wonderland! The lakefront community of Crystal Beach in Canada’s Fort Erie is covered in ice, from the homes to the cars, following a winter storm that swept through much of the province of Ontario.
US National Guardsmen help clean up the streets of Buffalo, New York, after it was snowed in by a monster storm that killed dozens in the United States over the Christmas weekend.
Buffalo (AFP) – Snow removal operation is seen in the streets of Buffalo as the widely referred to as “blizzard of the century” caused over 50 dead in the US.
Ibi (Spain) (AFP) – Eggs soar through the air and clouds of flour erupt as the southeastern Spanish town of Ibi celebrates its annual ‘Els Enfarinats’ festival, part of a 200-year-old tradition.
New York (AFP) – With his child-like enthusiasm, Danny Cortes re-creates in miniature the hip-hop-infused street scenes of a gritty New York. But what began as a hobby has since brought him fame in the rap community and profitable sales even at Sotheby’s prestigious auction house.
Beijing (AFP) – China’s Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin says that the epidemic situation is ‘predictable and under control’ as the country dismantles the last remaining piece of its stringent zero-Covid policy, ending mandatory quarantine for overseas arrivals. Infections are surging nationwide, causing jitters around the world, with the United States saying it may restrict travel from China.
Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Francis says that former pontiff Benedict XVI, 95, whose health has steadily been deteriorating, is “very ill” and he is praying for him.
Holstebro (Denmark) (AFP) – Reinventing himself as a brewer at age 62 would never have occurred to Poul Erik Vestergaard, but Denmark’s controversial cull of the country’s minks over Covid fears forced him to change course. Authorities ordered the slaughter of the Nordic country’s farmed mink population — around 15,500 — in November 2020 following the discovery of a mutated strain of the coronavirus. After a two-year ban, Denmark will once again allow mink farming from January 2023. But for Vestergaard, his mink raising days are over.
