24 hours in pictures, 18 February 2026

Pope Leo XIV blesses a baby during the weekly general audience at St Peter’s Square in The Vatican on February 18, 2026. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)

Revelers take part in Mardi Gras Day festivities at Jackson Square in New Orleans on February 17, 2026. (Photo by SANDY HUFFAKER / AFP)

Convicted child rapist and murderer Amber-Lee Hughes takes the stand for raping and killing four-year-old Nada-Jane Challita, at the High Court in Johannesburg, 18 February 2026, for sentencing. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/ The Citizen

Shadrack Sibiya Testifies At The Madlanga Commission

General Shadrack Sibiya (Deputy National Police Commissioner for Crime Detection ) testifies at Madlanga Commission Of Inquiry at Brigitte Mabandla Judicial College on February 18, 2026 in Pretoria, South Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa established the commission to investigate and report on the veracity, scope, and extent of the allegations made on 6 July 2025 by KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi that South Africa’s criminal justice system was compromised. (Photo by Gallo Images/Frennie Shivambu)

Japan’s Mone Chiba competes in the figure skating women’s single skating short program during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Antonin THUILLIER / AFP)

Alpine Skiing - Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics:

Lara Markthaler of Team South Africa competes during the Women’s Slalom Run on day twelve of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre on February 18, 2026 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. (Photo by Mattia Ozbot/Getty Images)

People walk outside the shrine of Sheikh Abu Hanifa al-Numan in the Adhamiya district of Baghdad on February 17, 2026, on the first night of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)

France’s President Emmanuel Macron gestures as he arrives in New Delhi on February 18, 2026. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

Members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) confiscate material during a Joint-Law Enforcement Operation used by artisanal miners from Gugulethu informal settlement working in search of gold in a patch of land outside Springs, Ekurhuleni, on February 18, 2026. (Photo by Phill Magakoe / AFP)

Soldiers on amphibious vessels take part in NATO’s STEADFAST DART 26 exercise in Putlos, Germany, on February 18, 2026. (Photo by Fabian Bimmer / POOL / AFP)

An aerial view shows floodwater surrounding a cemetery in Jusix, in the Lot-and-Garonne department of southwestern France on February 18, 2026. (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP)

A carnival goer dressed up as Gilles de Binche, the oldest and principal participants in the Carnival of Binche, parade in Binche on February 17, 2026. The Binche Carnival tradition is one of the most ancient and representative of Wallonia and inscribed in 2008 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. (Photo by JOHN THYS / AFP)

The parish priest prepares to bless the ashes during Ash Wednesday Mass at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, on February 18, 2026. (Photo by ILARIA FINIZIO / AFP)

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