This aerial nighttime view shows the Abbasid Square and the out of use Abbasiyyin Stadium overlooking it, in the eastern part of Damascus late on December 22, 2024. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP) Hawaiian surfer Mason Ho catches a wave during the 2024 Rip Curl Eddie Aikau Big Wave invitational on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, on December 22, 2024. (Photo by Brian Bielmann / AFP) Airborne ice crystals form a sun halo over Mount Mansfield as a skier heads down the slope in Stowe, Vermont, USA, 22 December 2024. Windchill temperatures at the summit were 35 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, or 37 degrees below zero Celsius. Cold weather advisories are in effect for much of the Northeastern United States. Picture: EPA-EFE/JIM LO SCALZO A group of displaced Palestinian children, who fled their homes due to Israeli airstrikes and evacuation orders, sits near their tents in a makeshift camp at sunset in Khan Younis camp, southern Gaza Strip, 22 December 2024. According to the UN, at least 1.9 million people (or nine in ten people) across the Gaza Strip are internally displaced, including people who have been repeatedly displaced. Since October 2023, only about 11 percent of the Gaza Strip has not been placed under Israeli-issued evacuation orders, the UN aid coordination office OCHA said. Picture: EPA-EFE/HAITHAM IMAD People gather around a bus hit by an Israeli strike which led to casualties, in the Mawasi area west of Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip on December 23, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP) People shop on a street turned into a bargain market in Manila, Philippines, 23 December 2024. Picture: EPA-EFE/FRANCIS R. MALASIG A worker cleans and organizes the nativity of Jesus Christ during preparations for Christmas Eve at Jakarta Cathedral in Jakarta, Indonesia, 23 December 2024. Indonesia is gearing up for Christmas celebrations as police officers are deployed to protect churches and other religious sites in the country. Picture: EPA-EFE/ADI WEDA Members of the Lev Tahor Jewish community remain outside the Alida Espana de Arana special education school where the rescued children remain in Guatemala City on December 22, 2024. Guatemalan authorities on Friday rescued 160 children from a farm belonging to the Lev Tahor sect, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group under investigation for alleged sexual abuse of minors, the Interior Minister and the Attorney General's Office announced. (Photo by Johan ORDÓÑEZ / AFP) Supporters of the Georgian opposition hold Georgian and EU flags during a protest in front of the Georgian Parliament in Tbilisi, Georgia, 22 December 2024. Georgian lawmakers elected Mikheil Kavelashvili as the country's new president in a controversial parliamentary vote on 14 December that sparked accusations of illegitimacy and protests. Georgia's outgoing president Salome Zourabichvili has condemned Kavelashvili's appointment as 'illegitimate' and declared herself the only legitimate representative of power in the country. Picture: EPA-EFE/DAVID MDZINARISHVILI Christmas decorative items are displayed for sale at a shop in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 23 December 2024. Picture: EPA-EFE/MONIRUL ALAM Firefighters and other rescue teams work in the site of a plane crash at the city of Gramado, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, on December 22, 2024. At least nine people died after a small plane crashed in a commercial area of the tourist city of Gramado, in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul (south), according to authorities. (Photo by MATEUS BRUXEL / AGENCIA RBS / AF / AFP) A street vendor dog wears a Christmas glass in Bangkok, Thailand, 23 December 2024. Thai Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira predicts the gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to expand by 4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024, potentially boosting Thailand's economic expansion to 2.7 to 2.8 percent and growing by 3 to 3.5 percent in 2025, driven by exports, tourism, and foreign investments. Picture: EPA-EFE/RUNGROJ YONGRIT MORE: 48 hours in pictures, 22 December 2024