Our picture editors select the best news photographs from South Africa and around the world to bring you a visual snapshot of the day's events.
People protest against the government’s decisions at the Senate square in Helsinki, Finland, 01 February 2024. About 300,000 Finnish workers started organizing a two-day strike to protest against the labor market reforms and cuts to the social system planned by the right-wing government. Picture: EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT
A street vendor rides a bicycle with balloons to sell on a street in Hanoi on February 1, 2024. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / AFP)This handout photo taken and received from the OIS/IOC on February 1, 2024 shows Japan’s Kudo Rise competing in the snowboard men’s halfpipe qualification at the Welli Hilli Park Ski Resort during the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon. (Photo by Simon BRUTY / OIS/IOC / AFP)Activists demonstrate during a sex industry workers rights protest at Parliament Grounds in Wellington on February 1, 2024. (Photo by Marty MELVILLE / AFP)Residents, friends, family and schoolmates protest in front of Leglaasi Nieyah Primary School in Beacon Valley on January 31, 2024 in Mitchell’s Plain, South Africa. Firdous Kleinsmidt (12) died after a suspected stray bullet hit her in the head, in what is believed to be a gang related incident. (Photo by Gallo Images/Die Burger/Theo Jephta)A shuttles hoppfish (shuttles mudskipper) makes its way along a beach in Kuwait City on February 1, 2024. (Photo by YASSER AL-ZAYYAT / AFP)A man steps on a snow covered boat on the banks of Dal Lake after snowfall in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, 01 February 2024. Plains and higher reaches in Kashmir witnessed fresh snowfall on 01 February. The local meteorological department has forecasted cloudy weather in the Himalayan region for the next 24 hours. Another spell of snowfall is expected in higher reaches from 03 February in the region, they said. Picture: EPA-EFE/FAROOQ KHANIndian commuters wait for the local train at Borivali railway station in Mumbai, India, 01 February 2024. The Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the interim Budget 2024-25, the last one before Lok Sabha elections 2024. Picture: EPA-EFE/DIVYAKANT SOLANKIHorse trainer Mike Azzie, left, 4Racing CEO Fundi Sithebe, centre, and trainer Sean Tarry pose for a picture, 1 February 2024, at The Bull Ring Grill and Bar at Randjesfontein, where 4Racing launched The Championships season – four star-studded horseracing meetings at Turffontein that culminates in the Finale on April 27. Guineas Day kicks off the season tomorrow (SATURDAY), then it’s Classic Day on March 2 and Champions Day – a partnership with the Hong Kong Jockey Club for four Grade 1 races – on April 6, before the Finale. Picture: Michel Bega/The CitizenSwedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg (R) arrives with other activists at Westminster Magistrates Court in London on February 1, 2024, for the first day of her public order office trial. – Environmental activist Greta Thunberg will appear in a London court on Thursday charged with public order offences linked to a demonstration against the energy industry. She was one of dozens activists arrested for disrupting access to the conference, which brought together major oil and gas companies at a luxury hotel in the British capital on October 17. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)A girl poses with lantern ornaments at the festively decorated Ditan Park in Beijing on February 1, 2024, ahead of the Lunar New Year of the Dragon which falls on February 10. (Photo by Pedro PARDO / AFP)Sota Yamamoto of Japan in action during the men’s short program at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Shanghai, China, 01 February 2024. Picture: EPA-EFE/ALEX PLAVEVSKIFarmers take part in a protest action in the European district in Brussels, to demand better conditions to grow, produce and maintain a proper income, on the day of a European Council meeting on February 1, 2024. Farmers planned to converge their tractors on Brussels on February 1, 2024, to bring the grievances of the agriculture protest movement to the EU’s doorstep — with the flood of cheaper Ukrainian imports triggered by the conflict high on their list of complaints. (Photo by DIRK WAEM / Belga / AFP)Health care trade unionists blow plastic trumpets during a protest called by the SANITAS confederation in Bucharest, Romania, 01 February 2024. Up to one hundred representatives of the SANITAS trade union federation from all over the country protested in front of the Ministry of Health on 01 February demanding wage compensations for endangering their health, and proper payment for the extra working hours and extra shifts in hospitals. SANITAS leaders were determined to start, by the law, a general strike in the health care state owned system, if their dispute with the government, over pay and conditions, will not be settled. The protesters received a promise of a 15 percent wage increase from the Health Ministry board, and temporarily suspended their actions. Picture: EPA-EFE/ROBERT GHEMENTAn undated handout photo made available by the Victoria and Albert Museum on 01 February 2024 shows a cast gold badge, worn by the Asantehene’s (king’s) ‘soul washer’, in London, Britain (issued 01 February 2024). The Manhyia Palace Museum together with the V&A and the British Museum recently announced that items of gold and silver regalia associated with the Asante royal court will be displayed at the Palace Museum in Kumasi later this year as part of a long-term loan. Many of these items will be seen in Ghana for the first time in 150 years. Picture: EPA-EFE/DOMINIC NAISH
