Thousands of Brazilians have kicked off their celebrations in Rio de Janeiro for the annual carnival. This year, many are using the five-day festival to mix politics with celebrations.

Rio de Janeiro's carnival crowned a champion of its elite samba school parade on Wednesday, capping festivities marred by two accidents that injured more than 30 people.

Policeman dazzles crowds with dance moves at London's Notting Hill Carnival.

Hurricane Maria, the second major storm to hit the Caribbean this month, hit the French island of Martinique and then lashed Guadeloupe’s southern shores Tuesday, as it tracked northwest toward the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

In Germany, it's carnival season - and thousands of revellers have been dressing up in flashy costumes to celebrate. Many groups take part in the festivities by creating humorous floats for huge parades on Shrove Monday. This year, the Jewish community of Dusseldorf is joining the fun.

Activists bring poachers to justice in DR Congo, water outages in Guadeloupe and more

The traditional Cadiz Carnival in Spain kicks off with revellers and choirs groups dressing up and hitting the streets.

Nicki Minaj is urging bloggers to quit gossiping about her husband after he appeared to shove a singer away from her while attending the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival festivities.

Film critic Lisa Nesselson speaks to Eve Jackson about the week's film news, including "Jumbo", an objectophilia film written and directed by first-time Belgian filmmaker Zoé Wittock and based on a true story. They also review former The Daily Show host Jon Stewart's political satire "Irresistible", leading Romanian director Cristi Puiu's period drama talkfest "Malmkrog" and the restoration and re-release of David Cronenberg's 1996 adaptation of author J.G. Ballard's 1973 novel "CRASH".

The traditional 'Bate-Bola' (ball-beating) Carnival takes place in Madureira, a working-class neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro with revellers wearing large clown style costumes and beating the floor with plastic balls, which traditionally used to be ox bladders filled with air. Rio de Janeiro would normally be kicking off its famed carnival now, but instead of booming drumlines, glittering floats and barely clad dancers, the Brazilian city's "Sambadrome" is hosting a Covid-19 vaccination drive this year.

The southern French port city hosts the La Plaine event every March. But this year's unauthorized party was also partly a protest against continued coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions on movement.

Raquel Poti barely stands five feet tall, but the stilt-walker used to tower over the crowd at Rio de Janeiro's carnival -- whose cancelation due to Covid-19 has made her reinvent her art form to keep it alive.