24 hours in pictures, 19 December 2024

Soldiers perform during the opening ceremony of the Vietnam International Defence Expo 2024 in Hanoi, Vietnam, 19 December 2024. The second International Defense Expo being held by the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defence runs from 19 to 22 December in Hanoi. Picture: EPA-EFE/LUONG THAI LINH Ukrainian firefighters try to extinguish a fire on the site of a Russian missile attack in Kyiv on December 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo by Roman PILIPEY / AFP) The Trevi Fountain without the scaffolding that had been erected to carry out restorations in Rome, Italy, 19 December 2024. The 18th-century Fontana di Trevi was cleaned ahead of the Vatican's Holy Jubilee of 2025. Picture: EPA-EFE/LUCIANO DEL CASTILLO Lawmakers from the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) (in white) try to break into Parliament where Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) occupied the night to avoid the passing of the third reading of amendments to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act and other controversial bills at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei on December 20, 2024. (Photo by I-HWA CHENG / AFP) Hawaii’s Ivan Florence competes during the Men's Vans 2024 Pipe Masters at Pipeline on Oahu's North Shore on December 18, 2024. (Photo by Brian Bielmann / AFP) An Indian paramilitary soldier stands guard in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, 19 December 2024. According to the South Kashmir Deputy Inspector General of Police, Javid Iqbal Mattoo, five militants were killed and two Indian security personnel injured in a gunfight in South Kashmir's Kulgam district. Picture: EPA-EFE/FAROOQ KHAN Issa Kassissieh, dressed as Santa Claus, jumps on the old city walls near Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, 19 December 2024, ahead of the Christmas holidays. Picture: EPA-EFE/ABIR SULTAN Migrants wait to be assisted after the arrival of the 'Guardamar Urania' rescue ship in the port of Arrecife, Lanzarote, Spain, 19 December 2024. The ship has rescued 147 people from three inflatable boats, including 46 survivors of a sunken boat, Spanish authorities said. At least four people have died and four others disappeared in the shipwreck of the inflatable boat that sank on 18 December with 55 migrants on board northeast of Lanzarote, authorities stated. Picture: EPA-EFE/ADRIEL PERDOMO Well known South african Jazz artist Xoliswa Dlamini performs at the Playhouse theatre in Durban over the weekend. The Playhouse Company held the Concert for Jazz lovers at the end of the year ending in the festive season over the weekend. Other artists who took to the stage were Dumaza Maswana, Ernie Smith, Afrika Mkhize and Nduduzo Makhathini. Picture: Rajesh Jantilal Iraqi Muslim girls, who traditionally begin wearing the hijab—a head covering worn in public—at the mandatory age of nine, take part in a ceremony organized at a stadium in Basra on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Hussein FALEH / AFP) This photograph shows damaged makeshift houses at a slum in the kavani district in Mamoudzou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 19, 2024, following the cyclone Chido's passage over the archipelago. President Emmanuel Macron vowed on December 19 to rebuild the French island territory of Mayotte during his visit after widespread destruction brought on by a cyclone. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP) A protester holds a placard reading "Stop genocide " during a rally to demand the release of Lebanese pro-palestinian activist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, in Toulouse, southwestern France, on December 19, 2024. The Paris Court of Appeal will rule on February 20, 2024 on the request for the conditional release of the Lebanese pro-Palestinian activist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who has been detained for 40 years in France for complicity in the assassination of two American and Israeli diplomats, a judicial source said on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Matthieu RONDEL / AFP) A boy tries to break the ice of a partially frozen surface of the Dal Lake on the waters of Dal Lake in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, 19 December 2024. Kashmir continues to be in the grip of a cold wave, with Srinagar witnessing minus 5 degrees Celsius ahead of December 21, which marks the start of Chillai Kalan, the 40-day coldest spell in Kashmir. Picture: EPA-EFE/FAROOQ KHAN People walk past the Bank of England building before the announcement of the central bank's interest rate decision, London, UK, 19 December 2024. The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has maintained its 4.75 percent interest rate following the recent rise in inflation. Picture: EPA-EFE/TOLGA AKMEN PICTURES: Behind the scenes at Beauty and the Beast pantomime

24 hours in pictures, 19 December 2024

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