AFP Video

Doha (AFP) – An Afghan toddler who was bundled onto an evacuation flight from Kabul in 2021 after her parents died in a bomb blast has been reunited with relatives at a Qatar orphanage. 

Paris (AFP) – “I use my body as a means to fight, as a tool to make political demands,” says 25-year-old Mathilde Caillard, as she dances during a protest against the French government’s pension reform.

Rolling Fork (United States) (AFP) – In the tornado-shattered small town of Rolling Fork, a giant gray metal box, normally used to keep the restaurant’s food refrigerated, saved nine lives as people used it to shelter from the disaster.

Beijing (AFP) – China says that the “true reason” behind a visit by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to the United States, a stop on her way to firm up ties with Guatemala and Belize, is to “seek breakthroughs and promote her Taiwan independence agenda.” Last year, a visit by former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan sparked an angry response from Beijing, with the Chinese military conducting drills at an unprecedented scale around the island.

Berlin (AFP) – At a questions from lawmakers session in the Bundestag, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rebuffs accusations from the opposition Christian Democratic Union party that he has “weakened climate protections” to keep his unprecedented traffic light-coalition government together. “Yes I am very thankful that we could push this through…but it is clear that for this law, looking towards the future, if we are to become CO2-neutral economy by 2045, we need and must want to develop further,” Scholz adds.

Copenhagen (AFP) – Worried that its two pandas, on loan from China since 2019, are slow to breed, Copenhagen Zoo has begun a new strategy to encourage mating. Keepers have put Mao Sun and Xing Er in the same enclosure a month earlier than usual so that they can get to know each other before the heat sets in.

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Fawzi Abu Ghabin and his nephew, Ramadan drummers known as “Musaharati”, roam Gaza City’s streets to awaken Muslims for the pre-dawn traditional Ramadan “Suhur” meal. “I have been working as a “Musaharati” for over ten years. Previously, I used to work [sing] at weddings to spread joy, as I do now,” says the 35-year-old Palestinian.

Doha (AFP) – An Afghan toddler who was bundled onto an evacuation flight from Kabul in 2021 after her parents died in a bomb blast has been reunited with relatives at a Qatar orphanage. The little girl, now believed to be about 21 months old and given the name Maryam by the orphanage, was the youngest of about 200 Afghan children to be airlifted out of the country alone.

Rzeszów (Poland) (AFP) – In this specially-equipped Boeing 737, most of the passengers carry the scars of the war in Ukraine and are heading to hospitals across Europe. 

Ciudad Juárez (Mexico) (AFP) – Flowers were placed outside a Mexican immigration detention centre near the US border where dozens of people died in a blaze on Monday night. The migrants were believed to have lit the fire as a demonstration because they feared they would be deported.