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Beijing, China
Performers take part in the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, in Beijing. The city once again hosted an opening ceremony for the Olympics and, like that for the Summer Games in 2008, it was directed by Zhang Yimou. The event was on a much smaller and more muted scale than that memorable occasion – with 3,000 people taking part as opposed to 15,000. The motto, in a Games inevitably affected by the Covid pandemic and mired with political controversy, was to be simple, safe and splendid.
Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
La Palma, Spain
A television antenna from a house is isolated and covered by volcanic ash and lava in La Palma. Spain’s Cumbre Vieja volcano began erupting in September after weeks of seismic activity, resulting in millions of euros of damage to properties and businesses, as the lava flowed down the mountains towards the sea. The volcano remained active for nearly three months.
Photograph: Marcos del Mazo/Getty Images
Jakarta, Indonesia
A worker wearing a protective mask walks into a room that has been sprayed with disinfectant at the National Museum, which is closed as the Omicron coronavirus variant spreads in Jakarta.
Photograph: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters
Kolyuchin, Russia
Polar bears living in an abandoned weather station on Kolyuchin, an island in the Russian far east. Photographer Dmitry Kokh discovered the polar bears while on a trip to Wrangel Island, a Unesco-recognised nature reserve that serves as a refuge to the animals.
Photoraph: Dmitry Kokh
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Women carry pans of granite up the side of Pissy granite mine in the centre of Ouagadougou. Hundreds of artisanal miners work there cracking the granite slabs and carrying the fragments up the steep walls of the crater for a few euros a day.
Photograph: John Wessels/AFP/Getty Images
Kharkiv, Ukraine
A Ukrainian border guard patrols the border with Russia near to the village of Hoptivka.
Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
Donetsk, Ukraine
A Ukrainian serviceman keeps watch in a dugout on the frontline with the Russia-backed separatists near Avdiivkain in the Donetsk region. The US decision to deploy more than 3,000 US troops in Germany, Poland and Romania is a ‘destructive step’ that makes it harder to reach a compromise over Ukraine, Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said, as Moscow continued to build its forces.
Photograph: Anatoli Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images
Colchane, Chile
Migrants cross illegally into Chile from Bolivia near the village of Colchane.
Photograph: Diego Reyes/AFP/Getty Images
Zubieta, Spain
A resident looks at a group of Joaldunaks taking part in the traditional carnival between the Pyrenees villages of Ituren and Zubieta. The carnival has been cancelled due to Covid-19 for the last two years. This year it has returned as one of the most ancient carnival celebrations in Europe, with dozens of people donning sheepskins, lace petticoats, conical caps and cowbells as they parade to herald the advent of spring.
Photograph: Álvaro Barrientos/AP
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
A worshipper prays during Friday prayers at the Great Mosque in Ouagadougou. Burkina Faso, the scene of a military coup last week, has been suspended from the Community of West African States.
Photograph: Olympia de Maismont/AFP/Getty Images
Atmeh, Syria
People gather at the scene following an overnight raid by US special forces against suspected jihadists in northwestern Syria. Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the leader of Islamic State and one of the world’s most wanted men, was killed during the raid. The pre-dawn attack on a house in the village of Atme, just south of the Turkish border, led to up to 13 casualties, among them women and children. It also resulted in the destruction of a US helicopter, which had been used to carry special forces troops from Erbil in Iraq.
Photograph: Aaref Watad/AFP/Getty Images
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US
US president Joe Biden visits the scene of the Forbes Avenue Bridge collapse over Fern Hollow Creek in Frick Park. The bridge collapse provided a symbolic backdrop for President Biden’s trip to the city to tout his $1tn infrastructure plan, and to try to rebuild his crumbling approval ratings. Pittsburgh’s public safety authorities tweeted that three people were hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries after the road bridge buckled into a snowy ravine.
Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Quito, Ecuador
Residents stand in an area damaged by the landslide as firefighter rescue crews continue searching homes and streets covered by mud in Quito. Neighbours joined rescue workers in hunting through the ruins for survivors of the disaster that hit after nearly 24 hours of rainfall.
Photograph: Jonatan Rosas/Reuters
Wolverhampton, England
A former Sainsbury’s supermarket waiting for redevelopment in the Horseley Fields area of Wolverhampton. The city is among 20 locations across England that are to benefit from a government regeneration fund that aims to ‘level up’ economically deprived parts of the country’s north. Boris Johnson’s promise to level up the UK is ‘highly unlikely’ to be achieved, experts have warned, after the government published a 350-page white paper this week underlining the yawning gaps between regions.
Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Derry, Northern Ireland
People take part in a Republican walk of remembrance to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Derry. Hundreds of people followed in the footsteps of the original Bloody Sunday civil rights march in Derry, where 50 years ago 13 protesters demanding an end to internment without trial were gunned down by British paratroopers.
Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
La Paz, Bolivia
Demonstrators march against gender violence, particularly against women’s disappearances and femicide in La Paz.
Photograph: Juan Karita/AP
Kharkiv, Ukraine
Svetlana Putilina trains to use a gun in Kharkiv. Putilina’s husband is a Muslim chaplain in the Ukrainian military. With grim determination, the 50-year-old has orchestrated emergency plans for her family and for her unit if the Russians attack Kharkiv. The situation in the city, just 25 miles from some of the tens of thousands of Russian troops massed at the border of Ukraine, feels particularly perilous.
Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
Vladivostok, Russia
Divers during an ice diving class at the Sea Frogs scuba diving centre in the city of Vladivostok. The scuba divers undergo theoretical and practical training in ice diving and perform dives in the open water during the day and the night as part of the ice diver special programme.
Photograph: Yuri Smityuk/TASS/Getty Images
Beijing, China
A goalkeeper from China’s ice hockey team attends a training session in front of medical workers wearing protective gear at the national indoor stadium in Beijing. Activists, journalists and academics have reported receiving police warnings and censorship of their social media platforms in recent weeks as Beijing prepared to host the Winter Olympics.
Photograph: Roman Pilipey/EPA
Melbourne, Australia
Spain’s Rafael Nadal celebrates after defeating Daniil Medvedev of Russia during the men’s singles final at the Australian Open. Nadal described his Australian Open triumph as his greatest comeback after he recovered from two sets down against Daniil Medvedev to win a record-breaking 21st grand slam title.
Photograph: Simon Baker/AP
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