Around the world in 20 pictures

NEWS | IN PICTURES | #VisionUpdates

A lot happened on Monday, May 17, 2021. Here is a selection of pictures captured in different parts of the world on the day. (All photos by AFP)

In South Africa, 89-year-old Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus and Nobel Peace Laureate, greeted wellwishers as he was wheeled out of the Brooklyn Chest Hospital, after being vaccinated against COVID-19.

South Africa is resuming its COVID-19 Phase 2 vaccination rollout programme, which targets vulnerable groups who are 60 years and older. This healthcare worker administered a jab containing the Pfizer vaccine on an elderly man at the Bertha Gxowa Hospital in Germiston.

Elsewhere, in the US, activists gestured while gathered outside City Hall in Pasadena, California during a rally demanding accountability for the death of Anthony McClain, who was shot in the back by police in Pasadena in August 2020. McClain's family dispute the police account of the shooting, alleging that officers "planted" the gun to falsely justify the shooting, and that Anthony McClain was killed "without warning" and "without justification."

Meanwhile, a ball of fire exploded above buildings in Gaza City as Israeli forces shelled the Palestinian enclave. Israeli jets kept up a barrage of air strikes against the Palestinian enclave of Gaza as a week of violence that has killed more than 200 people pushed world leaders to step up mediation.

The father of 12-year-old Rahaf al-Dayer held her covered body at al-Shifa hospital, after she was killed in an Israeli airstrike that destroyed the upper floors of a commercial building and caused damage to the nearby health ministry and prime health care clinic, in Gaza City.

In Argentina, this woman painted the face of another woman during a demonstration in support of Palestinians during an anti-Israel protest rally near the Israel embassy, in Buenos Aires.

In the US, protesters held placards to call for the end of federal income taxes being used for military spending as they marched along a street before the Empire State building in New York city.

France's President Emmanuel Macron (L) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C) welcomed Malian President in transition Bah N'Daw upon his arrival for a dinner at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, following an international conference on Sudan which aims to provide financing breathing room for its Prime Minister as he pursues economic reforms. The French government promised to lend $1.5 billion to Sudan to help it pay off its massive foreign debt, kicking off an international summit aimed at helping the aspiring democracy emerge from decades of authoritarian rule.

Here, President Macron (L) welcomed Rwanda's President Paul Kagame upon his arrival for the dinner.  

Elsewhere, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken disembarked his airplane upon arrival at Keflavik Air Base in Iceland, his second stop on a five-day European tour as he arrived for the ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council.

In India, waves lashed over onto a shoreline in Mumbai, as Cyclone Tauktae, packing ferocious winds and threatening a destructive storm, bore down on India, disrupting the country's response to its devastating COVID-19 outbreak.

The owner of the zoo Pierre Thivillon kisses a chimpanzee at the zoological park of Saint-Martin-la-Plaine, two days ahead of its reopening as part of France's latest step toward the ending of its third nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.

In Pakistan, commuters drove through a street after a nine-day nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus was lifted, in Karachi.

A nurse carried a box with Pfizer BioNTech vaccines against COVID-19 and medical supplies in the remote village of Poienita Voinii, near Hunedoara in western Romania. - More than 3.8 million people among Romania's population of 19 million have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine so far, some during "vaccination marathons" and drive-thrus organised by the government in addition to the online and phone appointment based system implemented thus far.

In the UK, a young girl reached out as a penguin swam past at the Sea Life London Aquarium in London as COVID-19 lockdown restrictions ease.

Paramilitary personnel stood guard at the gate of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office as Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters shouted slogans after the CBI arrested four Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders in connection with the 2016 Narada sting operation case, in Kolkata.

Spanish Civil guards pulled a migrant onto an inflatable boat after he arrived swimming to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from neighbouring Morocco. More than 80 migrants, including some minors, set off in the early hours of Monday from beaches a few kilometres south of Ceuta and were detained when they entered the Spanish territory.

In Pakistan, youths cooled off in the waters of the Arabian Sea during a hot summer day in the port city of Karachi.

In Indonesia, this herder took his cows to graze on trash collected after the Eid al-Fitr holidays, at the Alue Liem landfill in Lhokseumawe, Aceh.

And finally, these two men mingled during the sunset in front of the 'Druzhba Narodov' (Fraternity of peoples) fountain in the All-Russia Exhibition Centre (VDNKh) in Moscow.