A young woman poses for a picture with a Christmas decoration on a square in a Christian neighbourhood, in Homs, Syria, Thursday, December 26, 2024. (Photo by Leo Correa/AP Photo)




The Miodrag Kostic Foundation opened the Palace of Science in Belgrade on December 24, 2024, which welcomes visitors from today at Kralja Milana 11. Thanks to Miodrag Kostic's gift to Serbian society worth over 25 million euros, a 5,500m2 space in one of the most beautiful buildings in Belgrade was turned into the first center for research and popularization of science in Serbia and the largest in the region. This project, which is of capital importance for the development of science and support for education, has brought back philanthropy to the big door, bearing in mind that it is the largest single donation for philanthropy in this area since the beginning of the last century. (Photo by Marko Todorovic/BETAPHOTO/Palata Nauke)




In this handout picture released by Kazakhstan's emergency situations ministry on December 26, 2024, emergency specialists work at the crash site of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet near the western Kazakh city of Aktau. (Photo by Handout/Kazakhstan's emergency situations ministry via AFP Photo)




This aerial view shows the remains of a destroyed monument to Syria's late president Hafez al-Assad, father of ousted president Bashar al-Assad who died in 2000, in Deir Attiyah in the countryside of Damascus on December 28, 2024. The monument in Deir Attiyah was the largest statue of Hafez al-Assad until it was destroyed on December 8 after Bashar al-Assad fled the countrty and Islamist rebels took the capital Damascus. (Photo by Omar Haj Kadour/AFP Photo)




People participate at the Fia-Faia festival with the “faias” lit on December 24, 2024 in Bagà, Spain. The festival of the Falles dels Pyrenees is an ancient tradition that is celebrated on the night of the summer solstice in different towns. The event was awarded as Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2015. During the winter, this tradition is only celebrated in two towns in Catalonia: Bagà and Sant Julià de Cerdanyola, called 'Fia-Faia'. The Fia-Faia festival has pre-Christian roots linked to the winter solstice but is celebrated on Christmas Eve. The “fallaires” are the people who carry the “falles” or “faias”, the torches made with long, thin and dry grasses, which are burned and are like a ritual prayer to stop the shortening of the days. (Photo by Cesc Maymo/Getty Images)




Demonstrators with an EU and a Georgian, Ukrainian national flags attend an anti-government rally outside the Parliament building decorated for Christmas and the New Year festivities, in Tbilisi, Georgia, Sunday, December 22, 2024. (Photo by Zurab Tsertsvadze/AP Photo)




A Syrian Muslim woman takes a selfie in front of a Christmas tree in Bab Touma neighbourhood, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, December 24, 2024. (Photo by Hussein Malla/AP Photo)




People sit at the Church of the Nativity ahead of the arrival of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on December 24, 2024. (Photo by Mohammed Torokman/Reuters)




A resident leaves with her belongings from the site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in central Kyiv, Ukraine, on December 20, 2024. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)




Firefighters carry the body of a passenger from the wreckage of an aircraft that crashed after it went off the runway at Muan International Airport, in Muan, South Korea, on December 29, 2024. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)




A person dresses up as Jesus at a Christmas theme park in New Taipei City, Taiwan, on December 25, 2024. (Photo by Ann Wang/Reuters)




Participants take part in a Christmas day swim in the sea at Brighton beach, southern England on December 25, 2024. (Photo by Ben Stansall/AFP Photo)




A man looks at fruits and vegetables displayed for sale in front of an ousted Syrian government forces tank that was left on a street in an Alawite neighbourhood, in Homs, Syria, Thursday, December 26, 2024. (Photo by Leo Correa/AP Photo)




Artists of the Remue Menage company from France perform a show called Gueules d'Ours (Bear Mouths) during the 10th edition of Bo Noel, in Lausanne, Switzerland, 28 December 2024. (Photo by EPA/EFE)




The Prince of Wales, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis and the Princess of Wales joined the Together At Christmas carol service in Westminster Abbey on December 24, 2024. (Photo by Aaron Chown/PA Wire)




Jorge Puma with a masked fighter dances as he waits for a volunteer to challenge him at the “Takanakuy” ritual fighting event on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, Wednesday, December 25, 2024. “Takanakuy” in the Quechua language roughly means to “beat each other up”, and has its roots in pre-Hispanic and even pre-Incan Andean traditions. (Photo by Martin Mejia/AP Photo)




The Purbeck Mummers – an ancient Dorset folk tradition – perform at the historic village of Corfe Castle, UK on December 27, 2024. The work featured the hero King George battling against fools and knights. The Mummers’ identities are concealed or “kept mum”. (Photo by BNPS)




People attend a rally ahead of Georgian President-elect Mikheil Kavelashvili's inauguration in Tbilisi on December, 29, 2024. The far-right former footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili was sworn in at a parliamentary ceremony moments after outgoing president Salome Zurabishvili said she was the “only legitimate president” and vowed to fight on against the Georgian Dream party that controls parliament. (Photo by Giorgi Arjevanidze/AFP Photo)