While at the Vatican, Pope Francis twirls a soccer ball that was given to him by a member of the Circus of Cuba on Wednesday, January 2.
Andrew Medichini/AP
A migrant from Central America covers his face as tear gas is fired over the US-Mexico border on Tuesday, January 1. Border agents were using tear gas, pepper spray and smoke as more than 100 migrants tried to enter the United States illegally from Tijuana, Mexico. According to US Customs and Border Protection, some of the migrants were throwing rocks.
Alan Stern, the principal investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission, celebrates with schoolchildren in Laurel, Maryland, when the spacecraft made its closest approach to Ultima Thule on Tuesday, January 1. Ultima Thule is a Kuiper Belt object more than 4 billion miles away. The Kuiper Belt is the edge of our solar system, part of the original disk from which the sun and planets formed.
Bill Ingalls/NASA/AP
A man applies makeup Tuesday, January 1, before performing at the Cochin Carnival, which is held annually in India's Kerala state to welcome the start of the new year.
SIVARAM V/REUTERS
Revelers in Ibi, Spain, take part in the festival of Els Enfarinats on Friday, December 28. Every year, festivalgoers wear mock military dress and have a food fight with flour, eggs and fireworks.
Alberto Saiz/AP
US Sen. Elizabeth Warren departs after speaking with reporters outside her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Monday, December 31. Warren took a major step toward a presidential run Monday, announcing that she is forming an exploratory committee ahead of an expected campaign for the Democratic nomination.
Elizabeth Frantz/The New York Times/Redux
Jose Antonio Aznarez, center, stands in a natural thermal bath during a cold winter morning in Arnedillo, Spain, on Saturday, December 29.
Alvaro Barrientos/AP
Ilhan Omar tweeted this image of her and her father at a Washington airport on Wednesday, January 2. She wrote: "23 years ago, from a refugee camp in Kenya, my father and I arrived at an airport in Washington DC. Today, we return to that same airport on the eve of my swearing in as the first Somali-American in Congress."
Ilhan Oman/Twitter
A 3-day-old zebra stands by its mother at an animal park in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary, on Thursday, January 3.
ATTILA BALAZS/EPA
A trader talks on his phone on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, January 2. Stock markets started the new year with an early plunge but recovered by the end of the day.
Richard Drew/AP
A woman waits to cast her vote at a polling station in Kinshasa, Congo, on Sunday, December 30. Voters were picking a successor to President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled the central African country since 2001. The results were expected to be announced in mid-January.
BAZ RATNER/REUTERS
Starlings fly above a waste facility near Rahat, Israel, on Sunday, December 30.
RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS
Visitors take their pictures at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Tuesday, January 1. Many of the monuments on the National Mall remained open despite a partial government shutdown that went into effect on December 22.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Harry Mayer plays with a garden hose on a hot day in Liverpool, Australia, on Sunday, December 30.
BRENDAN ESPOSITO/EPA
Migrant children from Central America play at a gym that was being used as an emergency shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Saturday, December 29.
Brazil's new President, Jair Bolsonaro, is joined by his wife, Michelle, after his swearing-in ceremony in Brasilia on Tuesday, January 1. The former army captain and far-right congressman, who campaigned as a political outsider and anti-corruption candidate, won a comfortable victory in October over his nearest rival in one of the most polarizing and violent political contests in Brazil's history.
Andre Penner/AP
Worshippers pray as they take turns lying in coffins at the Takien temple in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday, December 31. The coffin ceremony symbolizes death and rebirth, and worshippers view it as a fresh start for the new year.
Sakchai Lalit/AP
US President Donald Trump appears in the White House briefing room on Thursday, January 3, to introduce three Border Patrol Council members who spoke about the need of a border wall with Mexico. The President and Democrats are at odds over funding for a border wall, and their inability to reach a deal has led to the partial government shutdown that started on December 22.
Evan Vucci/AP
A zookeeper poses with two Bactrian camels during a publicity event for the London Zoo's annual stocktake on Thursday, January 3.
