AFP Video

Montreal (AFP) – Trampolines and trapezes are out on the asphalt in Montreal, with colourful acrobats twirling near skyscrapers in breathtaking feats. Spellbound crowds are a July tradition with hundreds of free shows going on in the heart of the Canadian city, which sees itself as a world capital of razzle-dazzle acrobatics. The high-flying festival, known by the French name “Montreal Completement Cirque,” annually draws tens of thousands of spectators. N°33N78TD

Vincennes (France) (AFP) – It was when she was evacuated from Kabul on 1 December 2021 and boarded the plane for Paris that she realised she was leaving for “the Olympic city”. Two years later, Marzieh Hamidi, Afghan taekwondo champion, is being considered to join the team of refugees at the Olympic Games, set up in 2016 by the International Olympic Committee. The AFP meet the young athlete, who has received a grant to prepare for the Games, in Vincennes, near Paris.

Bratislava (AFP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calls on NATO to resolve the issue of Sweden’s and Ukraine’s membership bids, saying the indecision is “a threat to the strength of the Alliance” and global security, during a visit to Slovakia as part of a tour pushing for Ukraine’s NATO bid and to secure more weapons.

Florida (United States) (AFP) – Selah Freedom, a US-based nonprofit organization that helps sex trafficking survivors restore their lives, joins forces with a small Florida tattoo parlor to cover up survivors’ tattoos, once used as branding by their traffickers.

Pamplona (Spain) (AFP) – Six people were injured, none of them seriously, in the first bull running race of Spain’s San Fermin festival, which atrracts tourists from around the world.

Geneva (AFP) – A panel of AI-enabled humanoid robots take the microphone at a United Nations conference with the message: they could eventually run the world better than humans.

El Aguila municipality , Valle del Cauca department (Colombia) (AFP) – Once hunted for killing livestock and ruining crops, the Andean bear has become the new protege of coffee farmers in Colombia. In exchange for giving up some of their land to expand the bear’s habitat, the farmers are receiving crucial support for their cultivation.

Zaporizhzhia (Ukraine) (AFP) – Residents of the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, close to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, express fear as Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of planning an attack. “Chernobyl is nothing compared to our nuclear power plant” says 46-year-old Natalia. “It would affect Russia, or half of Russia for sure, and half of Europe”.

Prague (AFP) – Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, says it is “difficult” for his forces to fight Russia without long-range weapons and that the decision to supply them to Ukraine “depends only” on the US. Speaking during a visit to the Czech capital, Zelensky explains that a lack of long-range weapons means “you can’t reach the right distance to destroy your enemy.”

London (AFP) – Images from June 6 show a preview of Christie’s 2023 ‘Classic Week’ sales which include a pair of portraits by Rembrandt that the world had forgotten about for almost 200 years which fetched more than £11 million ($14 million) at auction. The portraits of relatives of the artist, Jan Willemsz van der Pluym and his wife Jaapgen Carels, were last sold at auction by Christie’s on 18 June 1824, and were offered for sale by descendants of the same family. They are the only pair of portraits by Rembrandt remaining in private hands.