AFP Video

Tokyo (AFP) – Tokyo worshippers participate in the annual ice water purification ritual at the Teppozu Inari Shrine, an event to pray for good health in the new year. The participants warm up by stretching their bodies and jump into a pool of cold water with huge ice blocks in it. The New Year event has nearly 70 years’ history in the community. “I pray for the coronavirus pandemic to end soon,” says 74-year-old Yoshiko Shibata, the oldest participant.

Sandstone (United States) (AFP) – Climbers brave freezing temperatures in an ice climbing festival held in Sandstone, Minnesota. “Dealing with the cold is definitely a big part of ice climbing,” participant Ethan Baker says. For fellow climber Catherine Schneider, it’s all about the views: “That’s why I like it, and it’s quiet and you are in places where mostly you couldn’t normally be.”

Murree (Pakistan) (AFP) – At least 21 people died in an enormous traffic jam caused by tens of thousands of visitors thronging a Pakistani hill town to see unusually heavy snowfall.

London (AFP) – Kentish Town City Farm, celebrating its 50th year of operation in 2022, has found a novel way for people in the local community to recycle their unwanted Christmas trees now that the festive season is over: feeding them to the farm’s goats.

San Cristobal (Venezuela) (AFP) – An environmental police corps is running a pilot project for waste sorting and recycling in Venezuela’s western state of Tachira. The team, made up of only seven officers, carried out its first patrols in the city of San Cristobal in November. Their main objective is to educate people on collecting rubbish and recycling as much waste as possible.

Kayah State (Myanmar) (AFP) – A handful of Myanmar nurses hiding from the junta have been risking arrest by running makeshift clinics to treat Covid patients and resistance fighters with medicine smuggled past military checkpoints. The country’s healthcare workers have found themselves at the forefront of a civil disobedience movement against the February coup and a crackdown on dissent that has killed more than 1,300.

Kigali (AFP) – Congolese chef Dieuveil Malonga learned his craft in Europe’s top restaurants and has visited 38 of Africa’s 54 countries, bringing back fermentation and other techniques, as well as ingredients that add texture and flavour to the dishes served at his restaurant in Rwanda’s capital Kigali. The 30-year-old from Congo-Brazzaville, draws on his variety of knowledge to create his “Afro-fusion” cuisine, which he hopes will draw more attention to the diversity of food on offer across Africa.