Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in the focus of photographers as she stands on the tribune prior to a session at the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) in Berlin on December 8, 2021 to elect the country's next Chancellor. Members of the parliament are to elected Olaf Scholz, bringing the curtain down on Angela Merkel's 16-year reign, ushering in a new political era with the centre-left in charge. Together with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats, Scholz's SPD managed in a far shorter time than expected to forge a coalition that aspires to make Germany greener and fairer. (Photo by Ina Fassbender/AFP Photo)





Newly elected German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, gestures as he sits in the gallery prior to his swearing-in ceremony, at the German Parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Wednesday, December 8, 2021. Scholz has become Germany's ninth post-World War II chancellor, opening a new era for the European Union’s most populous nation and largest economy after Angela Merkel’s 16-year tenure. Scholz’s government takes office with high hopes of modernizing Germany and combating climate change but faces the immediate challenge of handling the country’s toughest phase yet of the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP Photo)





Ukrainian soldiers walks at the line of separation from pro-Russian rebels near Katerinivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, December 7, 2021. Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday charged that Russia is sending tanks and snipers to the line of contact in war-torn eastern Ukraine to “provoke return fire”, an accusation that comes amid fears that a Russian troop buildup near the Ukrainian border might indicate plans for an invasion. (Photo by Andriy Dubchak/AP Photo)





Cambodian officers stand next to a portrait of former Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh during his funeral ceremony in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 08 December 2021. Thousands of Cambodians gathered to honor former Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh before his cremation after he passed away on 28 November 2021 in France, at the age of 77. (Photo by Mak Remissa/EPA/EFE)





Israeli border police officers stand guard at the scene of a stabbing attack in east Jerusalem, Wednesday, December 8, 2021. An Israeli woman was stabbed and lightly wounded in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem on Wednesday. The suspect, a Palestinian female minor, fled the scene and was later arrested inside a nearby school, police said. (Photo by Mahmoud Illean/AP Photo)





Life vests sit on the promenade along the River Thames during a “Refugees Welcome” protest in London, Britain, 07 December 2021. The Nationality and Borders Bill is being debated in parliament on 07 December. (Photo by Andy Rain/EPA/EFE)





Members of different social movements celebrate in the Senate after the passing of a bill to legalize same-sеx marriage in Chile, at the National Congress in Valparaiso, Chile, on December 7, 2021. Chile's congress on Tuesday approved a long-awaited bill to legalize same-sеx marriage, joining just a handful of countries in majority Catholic Latin America with similar laws. The measure has the support of President Sebastian Pinera, who must sign it into law, and will also enable married same-sеx couples to adopt children. (Photo by Dedvi Missene/AFP Photo)





Medical personnel wear personal protective equipment (PPE) as they assist a newly entered COVID -19 unvaccinated patient inside the Emergency Ward converted to a COVID -19 dirty zone at the Bochnia Hospital on December 07, 2021 in Bochnia, Poland. The Central Eastern European country has been struggling with the vaccination rate as many continue sceptical to have a jab. Currently 54.1% of the population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. According to the director of Bochina hospital 95 % of the patients infected with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. Today, the Ministry of Health announced 19,366 new infections and a death rate above 500. (Photo by Omar Marques/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)





A health worker carries a tray containing a vaccine at the Cardiff Bay mass vaccination centre on December 8, 2021 in Cardiff, Wales. Yesterday Wales Health Minister Eluned Morgan announced that all adults in Wales will be offered a booster vaccination by the end of January. The eligibility for the vaccination top-up has been brought forward from six months to three due to the emergence of the new Omicron variant. (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)





Commuters wearing face masks to protect against COVID-19 while walking through the La Defense business district transportation hub in Paris, Wednesday, December 8, 2021. The new potentially more contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus popped up in more European countries just days after being identified in South Africa, leaving governments around the world scrambling to stop the spread. (Photo by Michel Euler/AP Photo)





Richman Mkhomole captures data at the Ndlovu Research Center in Elandsdoorn, South Africa Wednesday December 8, 2021. The centre ls part of the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa, which discovered the omicron variant. (Photo by Jerome Delay/AP Photo)





People wearing face masks to help curbing COVID-19 virus spread wait for a train at a subway station in Lisbon, Tuesday, December 7, 2021. Despite having one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe, with 86.6% of its 10.3 million people inoculated, Portugal is scaling up its pandemic response amid the emergence of the omicron variant. (Photo by Armando Franca/AP Photo)





Christmas shoppers walk past Christmas lights in the Manchester rain on December 08, 2021 in Manchester, United Kingdom. A year ago today, the UK began its Covid-19 vaccination campaign, giving the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to NHS staff, over-80s, and care home residents. A year later, amid concerns that vaccines are less effective against the more transmissible Omicron variant, the government is pushing booster jabs, and reintroducing public safety measures seen earlier in the pandemic. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)





In this photo released by the Roscosmos Space Agency, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, center, and spaceflight participants Yusaku Maezawa, left, and Yozo Hirano, right, of Japan, members of the main crew of the new Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) walk prior to the launch at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, December 8, 2021. (Photo by Pavel Kassin/Roscosmos Space Agency via AP Photo)





The Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with Soyuz MS-20 space ship carrying Russian Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, and spaceflight participants Japanese fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, and Japanese producer Yozo Hirano blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, December 8, 2021. A Japanese billionaire and his producer rocketed to space Wednesday as the first self-paying space tourists in more than a decade. (Photo by Ivan Timoshenko/Roscosmos Space Agency via AP Photo)





Cultural entities perform with their Giants during the Ceremony of the inauguration of the Estel de la Mare de Deu installed in the tower of the Virgin Mary at “Basilica Sagrada Familia” on December 08, 2021 in Barcelona, Spain. The Star has a diameter of 7.5 meters, weighs 5.5 tons, is installed 138 meters above the Tower of the Virgin Mary and at a cost of 1.5 million Euros. (Photo by Miquel Benitez/Getty Images)





People take part in the Los Escobazos (Large Brooms) Festival in Jarandilla de la Vera, Extremadura, Spain on December 07, 2021. Tradition of “los escobazos” in Jarandilla de la Vera, a small town in Extremadura, Spain, dedicated to the Mary, mother of Jesus in which thousands of neighbors light bonfires and burn brooms, the celebration is a party declared “Party of Interest Regional Tourist of Spain”. (Photo by Diego Radames/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)





A woman walks past 3 meters tall pinatas shaped like the devil during the annual celebration of the “Burning of the Devil”, a festivity associated with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception which honors the city's patron saint, in Guatemala City, Guatemala December 7, 2021. (Photo by Sandra Sebastian/Reuters)





A figure representing the devil burns during the celebration of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, in Guatemala City, on December 7, 2021. The event marks the beginning of the Chritmas season in Guatemala. (Photo by Orlando Estrada/AFP Photo)





Members of the media take pictures of the pre-Inca “Mummy of Cajamarquilla”, which is presumed to be between 800 and 1200 years old, in Lima, Peru December 7, 2021. The “Mummy of Cajamarquilla” found by archaeologists from San Marcos inside a burial chamber of about three meters long and a depth of 1.40 meters in the Cajamarquilla archaeological site, east of Lima. (Photo by Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters)