New Yorkers share hopes for 2021 at Times Square Wishing Wall

New Yorkers gather in Times Square to say "good riddance" to 2020. Printed submissions from people around the world, who virtually shared their Good Riddance Day memories in advance, are shredded during the official Good Riddance Day celebration. Jonathan Bennett, host of the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration, reads some submissions during the event, before pulverising a 2020 piñata.

New Yorkers write down their wishes for 2021 at Times Square. The wishes written on confetti will be released at midnight on New Year’s Eve.

Ethiopia has claimed that an Amnesty report painting a dark picture of the Tigray crisis supports misinformation. Yet the country has tried to keep international journalists far from witnesses and out of the region.

The Japanese town of Taro had sea walls that were supposed to be able to survive almost anything the ocean could offer up, but the 2011 tsunami still brought utter destruction. A decade after the deadly waves unleashed by one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history, the lesson learned in many coastal towns was: build higher.

Surveillance camera footage released by the US Customs and Border Protection Office of Public Affairs shows traffickers hoisting and dropping two toddlers from the top of a 14-foot wall marking the US-Mexican border in the middle of the night last Tuesday. The two small Ecuadoran girls, three and five years old, were taken to a CBP station in Santa Teresa, New Mexico to be evaluated by medical personnel, and then were transported to a local hospital as a precaution. CBP said the girls remain in the agency's custody.

Shares in the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase start trading on Wall Street this Wednesday, with the company expected to be valued at around $65 billion. Its value has more than tripled in three years, boosted by the trading frenzy around Bitcoin. It will be the largest company in this sector to have gone public to date. Also today, we look at French government efforts to encourage employers to hire their temporary staff for the summer tourist season, despite ongoing coronavirus restrictions which have kept many restaurants closed.

As he scales the wall with ease, nothing gives away the fact that Marcel Remy is a remarkable 98 years old. Despite his age, the Swiss climber still makes it to the climbing centre every week. "I really enjoy it, because you have to work, you have to think, you have to push yourself," he tells AFP.

Former US President Donald Trump criticizes President Joe Biden’s immigration policy as he visits the US-Mexico border in Texas and meets with Governor Greg Abbott.

The move comes as Minsk enables a huge influx of illegal migration into the EU. Lithuania says Belarus is seeking to harm the European bloc in response to sanctions.

Senegalese living in some of Senegal's most arid regions are building circular, drought-resistant gardens known as Tolou Keurs with hopes of improving food security and, as part of Africa's Great Green Wall project, impeding the Sahara desert's steady advance.

This was the moment England and Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka walked into a wall of letters from fans.

A big jump in sales has prompted US grill manufacturer Weber to go public on the New York Stock Exchange — but prospects for sustained growth may not be as hot as they seem.