{"id":474671,"date":"2026-02-12T08:17:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T08:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/474671\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T08:17:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T08:17:26","slug":"a-hardy-creature-in-ukraine-and-other-news-in-pictures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/474671\/","title":{"rendered":"A hardy creature in Ukraine \u2014 and other news in pictures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A hardy creature in Ukraine \u2014 and other news in pictures    <\/p>\n<p>, The Times<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Pope Leo XIV leads general audience in the Paul VI hall\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/a4e32794-cd7b-4fe4-8a50-748a324fcde4.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Pope Leo arrives for his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican, where he called on Europeans to overcome political and religious tensions and unite<\/p>\n<p>MASSIMO PERCOSSI\/EPA<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Epstein Britain Politics\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/86ddd867-74f0-4e41-a255-44c3d4bfffb3.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The tallest building in the City of London, 22 Bishopsgate, catches the sun\u2019s rays. At 278 metres (912 feet), the building is still dwarfed by the capital\u2019s tallest skyscraper, however: the Shard, which stands 310m high, is just over the river<\/p>\n<p>KIN CHEUNG\/AP<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"15th Tour of Oman 2026 - Stage 5\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/1d5a3250-9510-42d7-b941-7122cd109bf9.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mauro Schmid of Switzerland begins the fifth and final stage of the Tour of Oman, in the old souk of Nizwa. He came fourth in the overall rankings, behind Adam Yates of Britain in third. Christian Scaroni of Italy won<\/p>\n<p>DARIO BELINGHERI\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Milan Cortina Olympics Daily Life\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/a8ec647c-c52f-4280-9262-3956e0d00df8.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Other than the ski slopes, Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo, which is hosting the Winter Olympics, is known for its high-fashion shopping. Its main street, Corso Italia, is sometimes called the Bond Street of the Dolomites<\/p>\n<p>ROBERT F. BUKATY\/AP<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"JAPAN-CULTURE-ANIME-GAMES-SWORD\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/d2e98073-b01e-4750-aede-c3fb416e21fd.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sword-makers in northeast Tokyo forge katana blades, the weapons of choice of the samurai<\/p>\n<p>YUICHI YAMAZAKI\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Magdalena Bay Performs At O2 Academy Brixton\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/ce671ae8-88b7-4af1-a2fc-b8ea60368bda.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Magdalena Bay, an indie-pop duo from Los Angeles, performing at Brixton Academy, south London<\/p>\n<p>LORNE THOMSON\/REDFERNS\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The 79th Shan State National Day at Loi Tai Leng, in Shan State\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/4b377d14-81b9-42a7-bcc4-1c299c4cbc7a.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Shan State Army, at a military parade last week, are one of the largest insurgent groups in Myanmar. Its leader has accused the West of turning a blind eye as the ruling military junta conducts deadly airstrikes against civilians<\/p>\n<p>JITTRAPON KAICOME\/REUTERS<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"TOPSHOT-GERMANY-ANIMAL-POLICE-FEATURE\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/202752d4-0da8-4a1a-81c5-5fd56b059b39.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Police had to step in after a swan lost its way and ended up in heavy traffic in central Berlin this week<\/p>\n<p>JOHN MACDOUGALL\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Zil Kale and Ayder Plateau in Rize blanketed in white after snowfall\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/325e3ea8-a697-409b-b01d-b5358492ade5.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Snow blankets the surrounding forests and ramparts of Zilkale, a medieval castle in \u201cStorm Valley\u201d, along the Black Sea coast of Turkey<\/p>\n<p>BULENT ISMAILOGLU\/ANADOLU\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Claudia Sheinbaum Attends The Commemoration Of The 111th Anniversary Of The Mexican Air Force\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/e13ba905-b4e2-4daf-abab-29a07fa5682e.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Mexican Air Force celebrates its 111th anniversary at the Santa Lucia base, north of Mexico City<\/p>\n<p>MARIANA MAYTORENA\/OBTURADORMX\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"People Leave Dhaka To Cast Their Votes, Bangladesh - 10 Feb 2026\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/8c0c48a0-1038-4aa1-a8e2-25c7bb394e1b.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of Bangladeshis cram on to the decks of passenger ferries to make it out of Dhaka. Many workers are heading back to their home districts to cast their votes in the national election today<\/p>\n<p>PINU RAHMAN\/NURPHOTO\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Siliguri, West Bengal, India. 11th Feb, 2026. A Oriental Garden Lizard sits on a wall near the tree plants in Siliguri. (Credit Image: \u00bf Diptendu Dutta\/ZUMA Press Wire) EDITORIAL USAGE ONLY! Not for Commercial USAGE!\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/3bad60ee-3f60-4eb2-bd98-3058a31f4dfa.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>An oriental garden lizard in West Bengal. While normally olive-brown, they can quickly change colour \u2014 a vibrant red or black \u2014 to attract mates or defend territory<\/p>\n<p>DIPTENDU DUTTA\/ZUMA PRESS WIRE\/ALAMY<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Freestyle Skiing - Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics: Day 5\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/c31d15e8-ab5e-4a40-bce8-590ba6534acc.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Haruka Nakao warms up for the women\u2019s moguls final in the Winter Olympics. She finished in 17th place after the first run: gold eventually went to Elizabeth Lemley of the United States<\/p>\n<p>PATRICK SMITH\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"U.S. VP Vance departs Azerbaijan\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/8f698d02-b747-4f4e-817d-402aff6c62a6.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>JD Vance with his four-year-old daughter, Mirabel, in Baku, Azerbaijan. The vice-president also visited Armenia as part of the highest-level American delegation in the Caucasus since Joe Biden visited Georgia in 2009<\/p>\n<p>KEVIN LAMARQUE\/REUTERS<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Protest In Tirana, Albania - 10 Feb 2026\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/94d6f188-d1a4-4bc4-a130-946ae4d91ba9.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Anti-government protests turned violent in Tirana, with 16 people injured in the Albanian capital. Demonstrators demand the resignation of the deputy prime minister over alleged corruption<\/p>\n<p>VLASOV SULAJ\/NURPHOTO\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Penguins Dress In Tang Suits To Greet Upcoming Spring Festival In Harbin\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/9133046c-7132-4a2e-96cf-bbab00efa4b1.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The penguins of Harbin Polar Park, in the very northeast of China, were dressed in red Tang suits to celebrate the forthcoming spring festival. Lunar new year, ushering in the year of the horse, is on Tuesday<\/p>\n<p>ZHAO YUHANG\/CHINA NEWS SERVICE\/VCG\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Texas Window Washers Spider-Man\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/58c86ca7-a0f3-4306-ac77-b038f08999a8.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Daniel Acosta, a window-cleaner in Edinburg, Texas, dropped in to help cheer up patients at Driscoll Children\u2019s Hospital<\/p>\n<p>DELCIA LOPEZ\/THE MONITOR\/AP<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ARGENTINA-LAKE-LEISURE\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/68b212db-73aa-4581-89fb-ecb2a9424599.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>More than 1,800 people came to bathe in the Mar Chiquita, a salt lake in Argentina, on Sunday. The salinity averages about 35g per litre in humid years, but has been 120g per litre recently because of lower water levels<\/p>\n<p>MARIO SAR\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"TOPSHOT-IHOCKEY-OLY-2026-MILANO CORTINA-WOMEN-FIN-SUI\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/47b1c47d-1354-4b3b-823a-0c635a41bbf5.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Swiss women\u2019s team huddle before their match in the Olympic Games. They lost 3-1 to Finland, who go through to the quarter-finals on Tuesday<\/p>\n<p>PIERO CRUCIATTI\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Krug and Max Richter Present Every Note Counts Music Tasting at Roundhouse, London\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/2b145c1c-5965-473a-b1bb-9ae73cde12cd.jpg\" class=\"responsive-sc-1nnon4d-0 bAbKns\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Pierce Brosnan and Lily James attend Every Note Counts at the Roundhouse in Camden. The \u201cmusical tasting\u201d evening was devised by Max Richter, who composed pieces of music to accompany three different cuv\u00e9es from Krug, the champagne maker<\/p>\n<p>DAVE BENETT\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n<p class=\"responsive__Paragraph-sc-1pktst5-0 gaEeqC\">For more pictures from The Times, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thetimes\/\" class=\"link__RespLink-sc-1ocvixa-0 csWvlP\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">follow us on Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A hardy creature in Ukraine \u2014 and other news in pictures , The Times Pope Leo arrives for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-474671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}