People wear New Year's costumes and take photo to wait the turn of the year in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, December 31, 2023. (Photo by Chiang Ying-ying/AP Photo)





People swim underwater at Clovelly Beach on December 14, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. A severe heat wave hit Sydney over the weekend, a precursor of hot and dry conditions expected for the rest of the summer which will also bring heightened bushfire risk. The mercury rose to alarming levels again on Thursday. (Photo by Jenny Evans/Getty Images)





A local resident watch smoke billow as the lava colour the night sky orange from an volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula 3 km north of Grindavik, western Iceland on December 18, 2023. A volcanic eruption began on Monday night in Iceland, south of the capital Reykjavik, following an earthquake swarm, Iceland's Meteorological Office reported. (Photo by Kristin Elisabet Gunnarsdottir/AFP Photo)





A member of the ThesSUP team dressed as Santa Claus paddles off the seafront of Thessaloniki, Greece on December 23, 2023. (Photo by Alexandros Avramidis/Reuters)





The colors of the United Arab Emirates flag are projected onto the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, during New Year's Eve celebrations in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on December 31, 2023. (Photo by Amr Alfiky/Reuters)





A balloon of a Disney character from the “Lion King” floats during Paris department store parade, as Christmas festive season starts in Santiago, Chile on December 3, 2023. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)





Issa Kassissieh, dressed as Santa Claus, sits astride a camel as he visits an olive grove overlooking the Dome of the Rock on Al-Aqsa compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem on December 4, 2023. (Photo by Ammar Awad/Reuters)





Members of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), part of the East Africa Community Regional Force (EACRF) troops, gather near their plane as they withdraw their deployment as part of a regional military operation targeting rebels, after the Democratic Republic of Congo did not renew its mandate to help fight M23 rebels, at the airport in Goma, North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo on December 2, 2023. (Photo by Arlette Bashizi/Reuters)





Muslims touch and pray at the door of the Kaaba during their Umrah, at the Grand Mosque, in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia on December 18, 2023. (Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)





A woman touches a grave while relatives and friends mourn during the funeral for Israeli reserve soldier Sergeant major Gideon Ilani, who was killed during the ongoing ground operation by Israel's military against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on December 11, 2023. (Photo by Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)





A woman holds her cat, which was carried by a firefighter out of an apartment building damaged by recent shelling in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine on December 19, 2023. (Photo by Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)





Bulgarian Muslim bride Aysel Gerova, 24, has makeup applied to her face during her wedding ceremony in the village of Ribnovo, in the Rhodope Mountains, Bulgaria, December 17, 2023. The village of Ribnovo has kept its traditional winter marriage ceremony alive after decades of Communist rule. The wedding ritual was resurrected among the Pomaks. The highlight of the ceremony is the painting of the bride's face, where in a private rite open only to female in-laws, her face is covered in thick, chalky white paint and decorated with colourful sequins. (Photo by Stoyan Nenov/Reuters)





Families of hostages and supporters hold a candle vigil, calling for the release of hostages kidnapped on the deadly October 7 attack by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel on December 21, 2023. (Photo by Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters)





Ukrainian servicemen take part in anti-sabotage drills, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Chernihiv region, Ukraine on December 5, 2023. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)





An Israeli soldier operates in the Gaza Strip in this picture released December 30, 2023. (Photo by Israel Defense Forces via Reuters)





A nun walks through the Church of the Nativity, in Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on December 25, 2023. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)





A woman carries figures of Baby Jesus during a procession for the Day of the Holy Innocents in Antiguo Cuscatlan, El Salvador, 28 December 2023. About 500 parishioners commemorated in El Salvador the Day of the Holy Innocents with a procession in which they carried hundreds of images of Baby Jesus. (Photo by Miguel Lemus/EPA)





Revellers battle with flour and eggs during the traditional “Els Enfarinats” (The Floured) festival in Ibi, Spain on December 28, 2023. (Photo by Eva Manez/Reuters)





A man walks past a collapsed house in Dahejia in Jishishan County in northwest China's Gansu province on December 20, 2023. Survivors of China's deadliest earthquake in years huddled in aid tents on December 20 after overnight temperatures plunged well below zero, with the death toll rising to 131. (Photo by Pedro Pardo/AFP Photo)