A music therapist plays harp during treatment of patients suffering from the COVID-19 in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Havelhoehe community hospital in Berlin, Germany, Dec. 6, 2021.
Defending champion Magnus Carlsen, of Norway, during a game against Ian Nepomniachtchi, of Russia, during the 9th round of the FIDE World Chess Championship at EXPO 2020 Dubai, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photograph: Ali Haider/EPA
PRECIOUS METAL: A staff member holds a portable sun-disc, dated 2400-2000 BC and found in Co Wexford, which will go on display at the British Museum in London for its forthcoming The World of Stonehenge exhibition. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA Wire
A billionaire US hedge fund manager with a "rapacious" appetite for looted artefacts has agreed to turn over $US70 million ($99 million) worth of stolen antiquities and will be banned from buying any more for the rest of his life, Manhattan's District Attorney says.
Bochnia, Poland
Medical personnel assist a newly admitted unvaccinated Covid patient in the emergency ward. The country has been struggling with low jab rates, with only about 54% of the population fully vaccinated.
Photograph: Omar Marques/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Newly elected German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sits on the government bench after he wa sworn in during a session of the German lower house of Parliament, Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany. Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch
Members of the media take pictures of the pre-Inca Mummy of Cajamarquilla, which is presumed to be between 800 and 1200 years old, in Lima, Peru. Reuters/Sebastian Castaneda
A Japanese entrepreneur and his production assistant are the latest private citizens to visit the International Space Station. Billionaire Yusaku
The Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with Soyuz MS-20 space ship carrying Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and spaceflight participants Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano of Japan to the International Space station, ISS, launches at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
Leanna Arcila, 7, is licked by Watson, a therapy dog with the Pawtucket police department, as she receives her COVID-19 vaccination from Dr. Eugenio Fernandez at Nathanael Greene Elementary School in Pawtucket, R.I., Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021. Even as the U.S. reaches a COVID-19 milestone of roughly 200 million fully-vaccinated people, infections and hospitalizations are spiking, including in highly-vaccinated pockets of the country like New England. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein were pictured sitting on a bench at Balmoral, where the Queen has also been photographed
New intimate photographs show Ghislaine Maxwell relaxing with Jeffrey Epstein at the Queen’s log cabin on the royal estate in Balmoral, giving him a foot massage and enjoying luxury holidays, as prosecutors seek to paint her as the sex offender’s “right-hand woman”.
Hennepin, Minneapolis
People console each other at a demonstration as opening statements begin in the trial of a former police officer over the shooting of Daunte Wright
Photograph: Christian Monterrosa/AP
London, England
Sienna Miller arrives at a court building where a number of celebrities have settled phone-hacking claims against News Group Newspapers
Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA
Flowers decorate the Imagine mosaic on the anniversary of John Lennon's death in the Strawberry Fields section of Central Park in New York City, U.S. December 8, 2021. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
18 years on from first hitting the big screen, the iconic opening scene of Love Actually at Heathrow has been recreated for today’s times. Love Actually script-supervisor Lisa Vick has modernised the monologue first voiced by Hugh Grant in the 2003 box office hit, whose words reminded people that love can be found everywhere.
New Zealand plans to ban tobacco sales to people born after 2008. The government will introduce new legislation next year that will progressively lift the smoking age from 18, starting in 2027. The new law will also reduce the number of shops that can sell tobacco from 2024, and allow only smoked tobacco products containing very low levels of nicotine to be sold from 2025.
London, UK
Stella Morris, partner of Julian Assange, speaks to media outside the Royal Courts of Justice after a ruling that would allow Assange’s extradition. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters
Hoi An, Vietnam
A woman takes a scooter trip with a canine passenger. The city is set to be the country;s first dog and cat meat-free city. Photograph:=Vietn: Nhac Nguyen/AFP/Getty Images
A migrant carries his belongings at a makeshift camp set up under a pedestrian tunnel passing underneath the ring road during an evacuation operation between Paris and the northeastern suburb of Le Pre Saint Gervais.
GAZA: People take part in a rally in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the north of the Gaza Strip, marking the 34th anniversary of the founding of the Islamist Hamas movement which rules the Palestinian strip on December 10th. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images
PEACE PRIZE: Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa speaks during the award ceremony at the City Hall in Oslo, Norway on December 10th. Photograph: Heiko Junge/EPA/Norway Out