The week in pictures

November 28 — A passenger tries to find a flight at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on Sunday after several airlines stopped flying out of SA amid the spread of the new SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron. 

November 28 — A woman writes on the National Covid Memorial Wall, after new measures were announced due to the Omicron coronavirus variant, in London, Britain. Global travel has increasingly been limited since Thursday, with the US, the EU, Switzerland and UK among states imposing restrictions targeting Southern Africa.

November 28 — Leicester City and Watford players battle it out at King Power Stadium in Leicester, Britain, during heavy snowfall, on November 28 2021.

November 29 — Policemen stand guard as a smoke column rises from a fire in a factory in Santiago, Chile. The fire forced some aircraft to be diverted, traffic to be rerouted, and schools and nurseries to be suspended. It broke out at a factory making construction materials.

November 29 — Schoolchildren apply finishing touches to paintings made to boost awareness of the new coronavirus Omicron variant, in Mumbai on Monday. India will make on-arrival Covid-19 testing mandatory for flyers from more than a dozen countries, including SA.

November 29 —  Metropolitan Police take part in a memorial service for Sgt Matt Ratana at The Royal Military Chapel in Westminster, London, Britain. Ratana was fatally shot in action in 2020, but did not receive a full funeral at the time due to Covid-19 restrictions.

November 29 — A sign in Long Street in Cape Town urges the public to wear masks as protection against Covid-19. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced this week that a task team had been set up to look into vaccine mandates for certain activities and locations amid the rapid spread of Omicron, a Covid-19 variant.

November 29 — Supporters of Xiomara Castro celebrate after  Sunday’s elections in Honduras. Castro became the South American nation’s first female president.

November 30 — Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis switches on Cape Town’s festive lights. There are 90 light displays across the city. 

November 30 — A shopper in Dublin’s city centre on Tuesday wears a face mask as the spread of Covid-19 continues. Ireland will require all arrivals in the country to have proof of a negative Covid-19 test to slow the potential transmission of the new Omicron variant.

November 30 — President Cyril Ramaphosa visits the cockpit of an SAA plane before departing for Nigeria in the first leg of his four-nation Africa tour that included Ivory Coast, Ghana and Senegal. 

December 1 — Shannon Brewer, the clinic director at the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, gestures to an anti-abortion activist during a protest outside the supreme court building, ahead of arguments in the Mississippi abortion rights case in Washington, the US.

December 2 — Volunteers feed malnourished buffalo at a farm in Brotas, Sao Paulo state, Brazil. Brazil’s economy fell into recession as extreme weather conditions, high interest rates and inflation cut short its recovery from the pandemic. GDP fell 0.1% in the July-September period. Brazil’s huge agriculture sector was down 8% on the quarter. 

December 2 — President Cyril Ramaphosa shakes hands with Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara outside the presidential palace in Abidjan on Thursday. It is the second stop on Ramaphosa’s four-nation West Africa visit, which ends on December 7.

December 2 —  US secretary of state Antony Blinken and  Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov leave a meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, in  Stockholm, Sweden. Blinken warned Lavrov of “severe costs” if Russia invades Ukraine.

December 2 — Members of the Independent Liberation and Allied Workers Union protest outside the City of Johannesburg Council Chambers demanding recognition of their union and to be reinstated after losing their jobs. The national unemployment rate has climbed to 34.9% as the joblessness crisis worsened to a new record.