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FILE - California Governor Gavin Newsom meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct. 25, 2023.

Investigators work near a scooter at the place where Igor Kirillov, head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces, and his assistant were killed by an explosive device in Moscow, Dec. 17, 2024.

Officials from India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and China pose for a photo before the six-country informal consultation to discuss ways to address shared concerns, in Bangkok, Thailand, Dec. 19, 2024. Participants attend an informal consultation among ASEAN member states on Myanmar in Bangkok, Dec. 20, 2024.

FILE - A worker installs names of the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on the wall of the Tsunami Museum ahead of the 10th anniversary of the killer waves in Banda Aceh, Aceh province, Indonesia, Dec. 4, 2014. The 20th anniversary will be observed on Dec. 26 this year.

FILE - Debra Tice, mother of U.S. journalist Austin Tice who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012, holds a dated portrait of him during a press conference in the Lebanese capital Beirut on July 20, 2017.

Myanmar's army-appointed Foreign Minister Than Swe attends a six-country informal consultation on the situation in Myanmar, in Bangkok, Dec. 19, 2024. (Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Handout via Reuters) Group picture taken before a six-country informal consultation on the situation in Myanmar, in Bangkok, Dec. 19, 2024. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Handout via Reuters) FILE - Gen. Min Aung Hlaing inspects officers during a parade to commemorate Myanmar's 78th Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, March 27, 2023. Thailand's Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa looks on during a press conference following a 6-Country informal consultation, comprising Bangladesh, China, India, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Thailand on the situation in Myanmar, in Bangkok, Dec. 19, 2024.

U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello speaks to VOA, in this screenshot from the interview.

FILE - Residents of the Nazon neighborhood displaced by gang violence construct a tent encampment, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Nov. 15, 2024.

FILE - A view of the logos of TP-Link, a maker of computer networking products, and its sub-brand Aginet, whose products are designed for internet service providers, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 28, 2023. FILE - FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before a House committee, July 24, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

FILE - Elon Musk arrives before a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, July 24, 2024. Musk called the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) the country's savior. FILE - Alice Weidel, co-leader of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, holds a bouquet of flowers she was given by party co-leader Tino Chrupalla during a press conference on Dec. 7, 2024 in Berlin,

Palestinians pray next to the bodies of their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Dec. 19, 2024.

FILE - The American and Chinese flags wave at Genting Snow Park ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Zhangjiakou, China, on Feb. 2, 2022.

FILE - Pakistani military personnel stand beside a surface-to-surface ballistic missile during a Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad on March 23, 2019. A White House official said on Dec. 19, 2024, that Pakistan is developing missile capabilities that could reach the U.S.

Macao's new leader, Sam Hou Fai, left, is sworn in by China's President Xi Jinping during an inauguration ceremony as part of marking the 25th anniversary of Macao's handover from Portugal to China, in Macao, Dec. 20, 2024.

FILE - The Russian oil tanker Volgoneft-147 stands in Muscat's Mina al-Fahl port, Feb. 7, 2000.

Chinese military personnel line up during the Golden Dragon military exercise in Svay Chok village, Kampong Chhnang province, north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, May 30, 2024.

A view of the launch event for the "New Mogadishu," a development initiative that aims to reshape the capital's economic landscape, in Mogadishu, Somalia, Dec. 19, 2024. (Somali National News Agency)

Vietnamese military officials look at S-125-2TM anti-aircraft missile launchers and ammunition during the Vietnam 2024 International Defense Expo in Hanoi on Dec. 19, 2024.

FILE - People examine photos as they search for missing or deceased people on the wall outside the morgue of Al-Mojtahed Hospital in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 11, 2024.

France's President Emmanuel Macron visits the Kavani district in Mamoudzou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on Dec. 19, 2024, following Cyclone Chido's passage over the archipelago. A young girl walks in the Kaweni slum on the outskirts of Mamoudzou, in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Dec. 19, 2024, after Cyclone Chido. France's President Emmanuel Macron speaks with children during his visit at the Kavani district in Mamoudzou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on Dec. 19, 2024, following the Cyclone Chido's passage over the archipelago. A child sleeps at the Lycee des Lumires where he found refuge, in Mamoudzou, Mayotte, Dec. 19, 2024.

FILE - A Pakistani-made Shaheen-III missile, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, is displayed during a military parade in Islamabad, March 23, 2022.

FILE - Residents of the Nazon neighborhood displaced by gang violence construct a tent encampment, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Nov. 15, 2024.

FILE - The Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 is anchored near Jutland, Denmark, Nov. 20, 2024. On Dec. 19, Denmark announced that China allowed investigators from four European nations to board the ship, which is suspected in the breach of undersea cables.

FILE - A person works at the Amazon warehouse, busy on Prime Day, in Melville, New York, July 11, 2023.

FILE - The app for Bluesky is shown on a mobile phone, left, and on a laptop screen on June 2, 2023, in New York.

Fire personnel inspect a building burned down by a fire in Hanoi, Vietnam, Dec.19, 2024.

Gisele Pelicot, the victim of an alleged mass rape orchestrated by her then-husband Dominique Pelicot, arrives with her lawyers Stephane Babonneau and Antoine Camus to attend the verdict in the trial at the courthouse in Avignon, France, Dec. 19, 2024.

Yemen

FILE - Rosmah Mansor, wife of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, arrives at the Palace of Justice at Putrajaya, Malaysia, March 31, 2023.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

FILE - Iron crosses marking graves are silhouetted against storm clouds building over a cemetery May 25, 2024, in Victoria, Kan. FILE - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is shown March 15, 2020, in Atlanta.

FILE - Police officers fire tear gas shells to disperse protesters in Islamabad on Nov. 26, 2024. Coverage of the protest led to one journalist being detained briefly and another called in for questioning amid a surge of media suppression and violence in Pakistan this year.

A digital image of Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing his annual end-of-year news conference, which will be held on Dec. 19, 2024, appears on the facade of a skyscraper in Saint Petersburg on Dec. 18, 2024.

FILE - Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Feb. 1, 2022, in Washington. FILE - Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo speaks at the convening of the International Network of AI Safety Institutes at the Golden Gate Club at the Presidio in San Francisco, Nov. 20, 2024.

FILE - Parts of downed Shahed drones launched by Russia are piled in a storage room of a research laboratory in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 28, 2024. FILE – This undated photograph released by the Ukrainian military shows the wreckage of a Russian-fired Shahed drone that it said was downed near Kupiansk, Ukraine. FILE - Parts of downed Shahed drones launched by Russia are piled in a storage room of a research laboratory in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 28, 2024.

FILE - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nov. 19, 2024.

FILE - A chicken is caged on a farm where thousands of birds are produced in Tepatitlan, Mexico, on June 6, 2024. World health experts cautioned on Dec. 17, 2024, that H5N1 avian influenza — bird flu — presents a possible global health threat.

A torn poster shows ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the entrance of a detention center in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 14, 2024.

Rubble lies around a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, Dec. 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. (Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters)

A Maxar satellite photo shows the possible planned location of UAV manufacturing plant in Russia's Alabuga Special Economic Zone, as evidence of new Russia-Iran cooperation, in this handout acquired June 9, 2023. (White House/Handout via Reuters) FILE - Parts of downed Shahed drones launched by Russia are piled in a storage room of a research laboratory in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 28, 2024. FILE – This undated photograph released by the Ukrainian military shows the wreckage of a Russian-fired Shahed drone that it said was downed near Kupiansk, Ukraine. FILE - Parts of downed Shahed drones launched by Russia are piled in a storage room of a research laboratory in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 28, 2024.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, right, greets Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prior to a meeting in Brussels, Dec. 18, 2024.

Inventory issues are a concern for some Thai businesses like baby clothes store Pretty Baby in Bangkok, Thailand, Dec. 17, 2024. Ben’s Socks store owner Banchob Pianphanitpor says his business has seen sales reduce by half since low quality imports came into Thailand from China, in Bangkok, Dec. 17, 2024. Many businesses in Bobae Shopping Mall are closed because of stiff competition from cheaper imports from China, in Bangkok, Dec. 17, 2024.

FILE - People wait for news about the kidnapped LEA Primary and Secondary School Kuriga students, in Kuriga, Kaduna state, Nigeria, March 9, 2024.

The leader of Syria's Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that headed a lightning rebel offensive snatching Damascus from government control, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, address a crowd at the capital's landmark Umayyad Mosque on Dec. 8, 2024.

Carcasses of rhinos, zebras and other wildlife were burned in December 2024 at Lake Chivero, about 20 kilometers west of Harare, Zimbabwe, after the animals died from drinking contaminated lake water. Dead fish wash ashore at Lake Chivero, Zimbabwe, on Dec. 18, 2024.

Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia and Ana Corina Sosa pose next to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola after during an award ceremony at in Strasbourg, Dec. 17, 2024.

FILE - A workers carries a bag of Syrian currency notes to Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Dec. 16, 2024.

FILE - Orlando Pride forward Marta, center, is interviewed after their NWSL championship win over the Washington Spirit at CPKC Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, Nov. 23, 2024.

China's President Xi Jinping speaks upon his arrival at Macau's international airport in Macau on December 18, 2024, ahead of celebrations for the 25th anniversary of Macau's handover from Portugal to China.