Today's best photos: from French protests to the Lunar New Year

The National picks the most striking images from around the world

Wooden pallets burn, as demonstrators gather during a rally called by French trade unions in outside the Gare de Lyon, in Paris on January 19, 2023. - A day of strikes and protests kicked off in France on January 19, 2023 set to disrupt transport and schooling across the country in a trial for the government as workers oppose a deeply unpopular pensions overhaul. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

Priests celebrate Timkat (the Ethiopian epiphany) with the Ark of the Covenant on a lake near Batu, Ethiopia. AFP

Health workers visit homes during a polio vaccination campaign in Pakistani-administered Kashmir. EPA

Chinese New Year lanterns in Hebei Province. EPA

Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta in action at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne. AFP

Football star Lionel Messi is depicted in a corn field sown with special algorithmic seeds in Cordoba, Argentina. Reuters

A protest against the expansion of Covid-related biomedical research at the Reichstag building in Berlin. Reuters

A dragon dance at the Lunar New Year celebration in Bangkok. Reuters

The National

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Updated: January 19, 2023, 11:52 AM