Enlarge image
1 / 28th
New Year New luck?
On the beach of Carcavelos, a few kilometers west of Lisbon, this couple starts the new year on January 1st - in swimwear, with star hairbands and a big kiss.
Have you known and liked each other for a long time?
Have you just fallen in love?
It doesn't matter, it looks like luck anyway.
Photo: Patricia de Melo / AFP
Enlarge image
2/28
Welcome, little one!
Date of birth: January 1, 2022. Place of birth: Nanjing, China.
Despite all the horror of the pandemic, a child is born in Jiangning Hospital.
A big hand holds a small one.
Just like in many other places in the world, at this point in time, in all the uncertainty that currently moves us - and connects us.
See all the pictures of the week on our topic page.
Photo: Dongxu Fang / Future Publishing / Getty Images
Enlarge image
3/28
Small snack with a shower
In Rio de Janeiro, people traditionally started the New Year on Copacabana Beach.
However, the celebrations were smaller this year due to the Omikron variant and the increasing number of corona cases.
The fireworks lasted only 16 minutes, live concerts and large gatherings were canceled.
Photo: Wagner Meier / Getty Images
Enlarge image
4/28
Short break
Nurses toast the New Year with champagne at the University Hospital in Marseille. The health sector has been under extreme stress since the pandemic began.
Photo: Daniel Cole / AP
Enlarge image
5/28
Last honor
A single bouquet lies on the coffin of the South African Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu. The former archbishop, who had campaigned for human rights and against apartheid all his life, died on December 26th. On January 1st, Tutu's memorial service was held in Cape Town. Tutu was famous for its modesty - and all he wanted was a simple celebration.
Photo: Jaco Marais / Getty Images
Enlarge image
6/28
Gold exchange
Maria Sofia Tovar is often teased because of her white hair, white eyelashes and light skin.
The nine-year-old girl from Bogota, Colombia, is affected by albinism.
The term describes a group of congenital metabolic diseases that ensure that the body does not produce enough of the dark pigment melanin.
What exactly the girl with the dark braids Maria Sofia wants to say is not entirely clear.
Maybe the two are exchanging golden decorative items.
At first glance, in any case, it seems as if they understood each other well.
Photo: Vannessa Jimenez / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
Enlarge image
7/28
Infernal
In Boulder County, Colorado, a real wall of fire is advancing.
The so-called Marshall Fire broke out on December 30th and spread rapidly.
Hundreds of houses were destroyed by the flames.
Photo: RJ Sangosti / Denver Post / Getty Images
Enlarge image
8/28
Washing day
They still drum the laundry by hand and then let it dry in the sun: In India, so-called dhobi do what the washing machine does elsewhere.
One of these traditional washers can be seen in the photo, tending to bedsheets in the floodplain of the Yamuna River in New Delhi.
This traditional profession has been around for generations; it has even survived the developments in modern technology - until now.
Photo: Altaf Qadri / dpa
Enlarge image
9/28
A sunshine
Kitties always leave.
And when the sun is shining, even more so.
The animal on the picture lives in a center for strays in Mardin, Turkey.
More than 2000 cats and dogs relax there.
And if need be, the milk is also available from the bottle.
Photo: Anadolu Agency / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
Enlarge image
10/28
Royal flutter
Hundreds of monarch butterflies sit in a public green space in Hermosa Beach.
There, on the corner of Valley and Pier Avenues, someone planted milkweed.
But the animals prefer to sit on some coniferous plant.
Photo: Brittany Murray / MediaNews Group / Getty Images
Enlarge image
11/28
Euro Tower
This New Year was an anniversary: 20 years of euro cash.
To celebrate the day, the Eiffel Tower in Paris was illuminated in blue with yellow Europe stars.
Today the euro is the common currency in 19 of the 27 member states of the European Union and can be found in the pockets of almost 350 million EU citizens.
Photo:
Kiran Ridley / Getty Images
Enlarge image
12/28
Dark past
On a fence near the Old Scona Academic High School in Edmonton, Canada, there are small ribbons that read "Every Child Matters".
With the slogan, groups remind of the decades of abuse of indigenous children in state homes.
Photo: Artur Widak / NurPhoto / Getty Images
Enlarge image
13/28
Pita shop
Not much is left: in Kabul, an Afghan is selling two last flat cakes in his street food stand, while three lamps light up the small, glazed booth with the corrugated iron roof.
Photo: Mohd Rasfan / AFP
Enlarge image
14/28
Swarm intelligence
Starlings fly over Rome in a particularly beautiful formation.
In the group, the animals constantly change their position, sometimes forming very pretty figures.
Experts also refer to the phenomenon as a so-called murmuration.
The behavior is based on a simple strategy: the changing formations make it easier for the starlings to shake off birds of prey when they come together in large groups.
Photo: Tiziana Fabi / AFP
Enlarge image
15/28
End of a million dollar fraud
Elizabeth Holmes leaves the courthouse in San José, California, where she was tried on January 3rd.
Holmes founded the biotech company Theranos in 2003 when he was only 19 years old, and with it allegedly developed revolutionary blood tests - a scam with which Holmes duped a number of investors.
The judges eventually found her guilty on four out of eleven counts.
Now she faces many years imprisonment.
Photo: NICK OTTO / AFP
Enlarge image
16/28
Treasure chest
Around 1.5 million Syrians fled the civil war to neighboring Lebanon.
The country is in a massive crisis.
Many can hardly afford the bare minimums.
The refugees are largely on their own.
25-year-old Aisha Mohammed Ali has fled Aleppo.
The mother of five tries to teach her children the alphabet with simple means.
Photo: Andreea Campeanu / Getty Images
Enlarge image
17/28
waiting period
Do you read, write - or are you waiting eagerly for your test result?
Two monks look at their smartphones at the Hua Lamphong Railway Station in Bangkok.
At the train station, all citizens were offered free rapid corona tests around the turn of the year.
At the end of the year, Thailand had an average of 2,600 infections per day.
In the meantime, the numbers are increasing in the popular holiday destination.
On Wednesday there were 3899 new infections.
In view of the highly contagious omicron variant, Thailand is considering new corona restrictions: Larger gatherings could be banned, as could the serving of alcohol in restaurants.
Would it affect the monks?
Photo: Lauren DeCicca / Getty Images
Enlarge image
18/28
Hotel of the cuddly toys
Dozens of teddy bears sit on the window sills of a hotel in the Chinese city of Yantai.
Photo: TangKe / VCG / Getty Images
Enlarge image
19/28
object of desire
Photographers and onlookers gather in Tokyo around a particularly valuable tuna.
The sushi restaurant chain Onodera Group and the wholesaler Yamayuki had bought the animal at the New Year's fish auction in the Toyosu market.
The price: 16.9 million yen, the equivalent of almost 130,000 euros.
Photo: Philip Fong / AFP
Enlarge image
20/28
Winter swimming
Two Chinese women change clothes after a swim in Houhai Lake in Beijing.
Winter swimming is popular with the elderly in China as it is believed to help them stay in good health.
Photo: Wu Hong / EPA
Enlarge image
21/28
Flight through the ball pit
Childhood dreams come true at the Balloon Museum in Rome.
The current exhibition is called "Let's fly" - let's fly.
Two visitors take this literally and initially only let themselves drift in the ball pit.
Photo: Alessandra Tarantino / AP
Enlarge image
22/28
ice queen
World class skier Petra Vlhova celebrates exuberantly on the podium.
The Slovakian won the Alpine Ski World Cup in Zagreb, Croatia.
The US-American Mikaela Shiffrin came in second.
Photo: Antonio Bronic / REUTERS
Enlarge image
23/28
Flaming anger
The heaviest protests in years have broken out in Kazakhstan.
The trigger for this are significantly higher fuel prices at the petrol stations in the oil and gas-rich ex-Soviet republic.
Violence broke out in Almaty and other cities.
Security forces cracked down on the demonstrators, and dozen were killed.
A Russian-led military alliance is sending troops into the country.
Photo: Valery Sharifulin / ITAR-TASS / IMAGO
Enlarge image
24/28
Defenseless
In Islamabad, Pakistan, men - wrapped in plastic sheeting - sit on the side of the road waiting for alms.
Photo: Rahmat Gul / dpa
Enlarge image
25/28
Snow Buya
Heavy snowfall in Tokyo: At this intersection, the weather apparently caused people to pause for a moment in the hectic Shibuya district.
They opened their umbrellas, maybe exchanged a few words - and took photos with their smartphones.
Photo: Carl Court / Getty Images
Enlarge image
26/28
map
France will hold the presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) for the next six months.
To change in Brussels, the flags of all member states could be seen.
Paris last held the presidency 14 years ago.
Photo: Anadolu Agency / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
Enlarge image
27/28
Snowed in
After a wintry storm, mountains of snow pile up in front of the US Capitol in Washington.
January 6th marked the first anniversary of the attack on the Capitol.
Hundreds of radical Trump supporters stormed the building a year ago when Biden's victory in the presidential election in November 2020 was to be certified there.
Immediately beforehand, Trump had renewed his often refuted election fraud allegations and called on his supporters to march on the Capitol.
The storming of the seat of Congress with five dead caused horror worldwide and is considered a black day in the history of US democracy.
Photo: TOM BRENNER / REUTERS
Enlarge image
28/28
Expectant
On January 5th, the eve of the Epiphany, children's eyes begin to shine in Spain.
As here in Pamplona, the arrival of the three kings is celebrated with parades in hundreds of cities in the country.
A day later, the presents are in front of the room door.
See all the pictures of the week on our topic page.
Photo: Alvaro Barrientos / AP