Around the world in 17 pictures

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PICTORIAL: Plenty of news unfolded on Thursday, April 22, 2021. Here is a selection of pictures from happenings around the world on the day: 

In Thailand, this Buddhist devotee lit a candle along with others in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest flaming image with 330,000 candle. (All photos by AFP)

The world record attempt by the Buddhist monks and devotees was done during Earth Day celebrations at the Wat Dhammakaya Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Thousands of miles away, US President Joe Biden listened during a climate change virtual summit from the East Room of the White House campus in Washington, DC. Biden sharply ramped up US ambitions on slashing greenhouse gas emissions, leading new pledges by allies at a summit he hoped would bring the world closer to limiting climate change.

Elsewhere in the US, a funeral was held for Daunte Wright at Shiloh Temple International Ministries in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Pictured are his father Aubrey Wright (L) and mother Katie Wright (2L) giving remarks alongside sister Diamond Wright (R) and Rev Al Sharpton during the funeral. Wright was shot and killed by police during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 11, which sparked days of protests.

Daunte Wright's casket was escorted out following the funeral.

Outside, Lamar Pettis raised his fist as he attended a memorial for Daunte Wright on the day of his funeral in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.

Meanwhile, across Uganda's border, Tanzania's new President Samia Suluhu Hassan addressed the national assembly as the first female President in the country's history at the Parliament in Dodoma, Tanzania.

In Panama, a nurse held up a vial of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 at an express drive-through vaccination centre at the Romel Fernadez Stadium in Panama City. Panama started the vaccination process of Astrazeneca to volunteers in an attempt to generate confidence in the country with the Anglo-Swedish vaccine.

In India, relatives and staff carried a dead body of a COVID-19 victim at Nigambodh Ghat Crematorium, on the banks of the Yamuna river in New Delhi.

In the Kenyan capital Nairobi, a legal consultant sat on a bench for his remote work with a smartphone at the Michuki Memorial Conservation Park which used to be an illegal dumping site along the Nairobi River and reformed into a public park to mark Earth Day, the anniversary of the worldwide environmental movement since 1970.

In Indonesia, a Muslim man read a copy of the Quran during Ramadhan at the Istiqlal mosque in Jakarta.

In south-west London, models swam in a transparent acrylic swimming pool bridge that is fixed between two apartment blocks at Embassy Gardens next to the new US Embassy.

A world first, the transparent 25-metre-long outdoor pool, known as the Sky Pool, will allow residents to swim from one building to the other, 10 storeys above the ground.

Question is, would you swim up there?

Elsewhere, protesters burned flares on the Place de la Concorde in Paris during a demonstration by entertainment sector workers and contract catering workers against a reform of the unemployment insurance, of which part comes into effect on July 1.

In India, this woman carried lotus roots for cattle on the shores of Dal lake in Srinagar.

In Australia, motorists commuted past a roading infrastructure project in Melbourne.