Syrian dancer and choreographer Yara al-Hasbani performs a dance on the empty Trocadero square in front of the Eiffel tower in Paris on the 37th day of a strict lockdown in France to stop the spread of COVID-19 (novel coronavirus). Yara al-Hasbani was putting the finishing touches to her make-up for a performance of "Romeo and Juliet" in Damascus when she found out her father had been tortured to death. His body was returned to the family 23 days after he was arrested by Syrian authorities, and when she began receiving threats herself, she knew she couldn't stay in Damascus. Hasbani, her mother and two siblings came to France three years ago after they were granted refugee visas in Europe. First arrived in Rochefort, a scenic port town in the southwest of France, she moved to Paris in 2016, a city where she found it difficult to settle at first. But her first visit to the famous Palais Garnier theatre opened the emotional floodgates and made her create the performance "Unstoppable," a 12-minute solo retracing her journey to exile. Her dance may be silent, she said once, but she'll carry on "raising her voice so people don't forget." AFP

World

World in focus - best photos for April 24, 2020

Take a look at some of the best images from around the world in the past 24 hours

The National

April 24, 2020