AFP News Agency

🇬🇧 'Only one comes out alive': Londoners on e-bikes bring back jousting Londoners decked out in full suits of armour take to e-bikes to revive the medieval sport of jousting in front of a baying crowd of hundreds.

France braces for demonstrations as trade unions strike. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets across France on Thursday, as unions hold strikes alongside student-led demonstrations that have gripped the country for weeks u.afp.com/SyRn

BREAKING An airliner heading from Dublin to Rome was rerouted to France on Thursday after a bomb threat, the French government says. The incident came a day after some 10 European flights were targeted by bomb threats on Tuesday, forcing the brief closure of a Warsaw airport and the scrambling of air force planes in Rome, according to authorities

Visitors skate on an ice rink during the opening of the "Winterlights 2026" installation by German artist Christopher Bauder and WHITEvoid at the DARK MATTER Transformator Hall in Berlin. The installation will be open to the public until February 14, 2027 📸 Tobias Schwarz

Voters in US capital say 'oui' to foie gras ban. The production and sale of foie gras is set to become illegal in Washington but the ban could face possible delays or be overturned, with media reports saying foie gras producers and restaurants are likely to challenge it in court u.afp.com/Syav

Gurkha soldiers prepare for their Pass Out Parade at the end of their infantry training at Helles Barracks in Catterick, England. All Gurkhas are recruited from Nepal, with thousands of applicants each year for only a few hundred posts. Gurkhas have fought for the British since 1815 📸 Oli Scarff

French bank says cyberattack stole around $100 million u.afp.com/Syat

LIV Golf relaunch collapses as key investor withdraws, reports say The private capital firm reportedly made the decision to walk away after struggling to convince several star players to fully commit to the league going forward u.afp.com/Syaj

Melania Trump to host officials from Moscow and Kyiv at the White House on Thursday, ahead of talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending the Ukraine war. Recent rapprochement between Trump and Putin had raised concerns the US could turn its back on Ukraine u.afp.com/SyRg

US House Speaker Mike Johnson to step down as Republican leader following his party's crushing midterm election defeat u.afp.com/Syay

As data centres drain pipes, some Indonesians shower in seawater. Angry residents protest outside Nongsa Digital Park, where data centres are under construction. At home, their taps have run dry, for which they blame the new behemoth constructions, initially welcomed to stimulate the local economy

Dead pilot whales are seen on the shoreline after they were stranded overnight in Cape Palliser, New Zealand 📸 Marty Melville

One of Hong Kong's best-known democracy activists, Joshua Wong, was sentenced to 10 more years in jail on Thursday for collusion with foreign powers. Wong has already spent almost six years behind bars and was previously expected to be freed in January u.afp.com/SyR5

Books by Guatemalan Nobel Literature laureate Miguel Angel Asturias (1899-1974) are displayed during the exhibition "E8: Miguel Angel Asturias, El Archivo del Gran Lengua" at the Palace of Culture in Guatemala City. France and Guatemala are preparing state funerals for the writer, whose ashes will be laid to rest in a monument at Guatemala’s main cultural center 📸 Johan Ordonez

BREAKING A court has sentenced Joshua Wong, one of Hong Kong's best-known democracy activists, to 10 years in jail for foreign collusion, extending his prison term beyond the six years he has already served

Demonstrators set fire to barricades during a protest over the lack of electricity in Valencia, Venezuela 📸 Jacinto Oliveros

'Envision chandeliers' While Republicans nursed a brutal hangover from their US midterms defeat, President Donald Trump was busy -- showing off his new ballroom at the White House u.afp.com/SyaC

BREAKING South Korea's defence ministry says it will deploy maritime patrol aircraft and an explosive ordnance disposal team to waters near the Strait of Hormuz as part of a mission to help keep the strategic waterway open

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan will speak in Brussels about the dangers children face on social media in their first public appearance since allegations emerged that her father had possessed child abuse images. u.afp.com/Sya6

Google has said it will switch off its AI tools for schoolchildren by default after drawing criticism for pushing artificial intelligence features to students while schools are still debating how the technology should be used in classrooms u.afp.com/SyaE