PHOTO COLLECTION: A look at AP's top photos in December

FILE – Ayen Deng Duot, far right, and her family reinforce their island with vegetation and mud from the swamp to prevent their home from being flooded along the Nile River in Akuak, South Sudan, Nov. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Florence Miettaux, File)

FILE – Judges in their windows watch the men’s Individual Gundersen Normal Hill/10Km event at the Nordic Combined World Cup in Ramsau am Dachstein, Austria, Dec. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

FILE – Aria Wogoman leaves her flooded home in Redding, California, following heavy rain, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

FILE – A child sits on an armored vehicle on display among Christmas lights in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

FILE – A family mourns during a menorah lighting ceremony for the victims of a shooting on Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)

FILE – Israelis ride on horseback for the funeral procession of Aviv Maor, an 18-year-old Israeli who was killed by a Palestinian attacker the previous week, at Kibbutz Ein Harod cemetery in northern Israel, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)

FILE – Internally displaced people (IDPs) fleeing the fighting in Congo’s South Kivu province arrive in Cibitoke, Kansega, Burundi, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Berthier Mugiraneza, File)

FILE – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, from left, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, and Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz pose for photos after their meeting at 10 Downing Street, London, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

FILE – Photos of Brown University shooting victims MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, left, and Ella Cook, lay on a makeshift memorial outside the Engineering Research Center, Dec. 16, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

FILE – Environmentalists create a glacier-shaped structure outside Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to protest a bill that would ease environmental protections, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)

FILE – Gentoo penguins nest at Neko Harbour in Antarctica, Nov. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)

FILE – An activist from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, shouts slogans as police detain him during a protest near the Deputy High Commission of Bangladesh, alleging that Bangladeshi groups are wrongly targeting Indians, in Mumbai, India, Dec. 23, 2025.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File)

FILE – Army helicopters fly overhead during a parade by the new Syrian army, marking the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar Assad regime, in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed, File)

FILE – DR Congo’s Nathanael Mbuku, top, and Botswana’s Gape Edwin Mohutsiwa fight for the ball during their teams’ Africa Cup of Nations group D soccer match in Rabat, Morocco, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa’ab Elshamy, File)

FILE – A mother cries by the coffin of her son Oleh Borovyk, a Ukrainian serviceman who was killed in fighting with Russian forces near Pokrovsk, during his funeral in Boiarka, Ukraine, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

FILE – Attendees stand during Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2025, Dec. 18, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry, File)

FILE – New signage, The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts, is unveiled on the Kennedy Center in Washington, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin), File)

FILE – Maximiliano Rivero holds up his pet Manola as people try to set a world record of most Golden Retrievers gathered in a park in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)

FILE – Pyongyang citizens and soldiers pay respect to the statues of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il on the 14th anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s death in Pyongyang, DPRK, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Cha Song Ho, File)

FILE – Sahar Taroush speaks with her brother after returning to her collapsed home in Jabaliya, Gaza City, Nov. 11, 2025, following the latest ceasefire. Her children are Ammar, far left, Hassan sitting with with his 2-year-old sister Ahlam, and Bisan, right. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

FILE – Members of a Chinese church living in exile after fleeing from China, are illuminated by beams of pulsed laser light from a cellphone’s LiDAR scanner as they sit for a photo, Oct. 12, 2025, in Midland, Texas. Photographed are Wensheng Wen, rear right, his wife, Lou Guangyzing, and their children Xin, 11, from right, Gehua, 9, Jinghua, 3, Rou, 6, and Younghua, 3. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

FILE – Britain’s Kirsty Muir crashes during the women’s freeski big air final at the FIS Snowboard & Freeski World Cup 2025 in Beijing, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

FILE – People watch a multimedia light show during the “Country of Light” festival at the Palace Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)

FILE – Henry County local correspondent Joe Durbin pauses in the late day sun as he interviews participants during the Beef Bash 2025 tasting event at the Berry Center, Oct. 11, 2025, in New Castle, Kentucky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE – Cincinnati Bengals running back Chase Brown, center, breaks a tackle by Miami Dolphins linebacker Jordyn Brooks, right, for a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game, Dec. 21, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Florida. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

FILE – Pilgrims arrive at Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City, Dec. 11, 2025, the night before her feast day. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel, File)

FILE – The Palestinian city of Jericho, seen from the Israeli settlement of Mitzpe Jericho in the West Bank, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)

FILE – Men dressed as former President Abraham Lincoln attend a mock funeral for the penny, which was discontinued earlier in the year, in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Dec. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE – Philippines John Christopher Tolentino celebrates winning the men’s 110m hurdles final race at the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand, Dec 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim, File)

FILE – Roswell Schaeffer, an Inupiaq hunter and fisher, helps his 7-year-old great-grandson James Schaeffer scope ducks while hunting in Kotzebue, Alaska, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag, File)

FILE – Seen from above, buildings peak through above dense fog in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut, File)

FILE – Revelers take part in the Afro-Venezuelan Holy Innocents’ Day celebration in Caucagua, Venezuela, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

FILE – Palestinian Khalil Abu Jayyab, right, and Tahseen Abu Assi warm up before surfing on the beach in Gaza City, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

FILE – Young dancers wait to perform at a Christmas ballet event in Nairobi, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Samson Otieno, File)

FILE – President Donald Trump arrives with his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force Gen. Dan Caine to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Dec. 17, 2025, for the casualty return of Iowa National Guard soldiers Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, Iowa, and Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, Iowa, and civilian interpreter Ayad Mansoor Sakat, who were killed in an attack in Syria. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE – Fireworks light up the sky in central London to celebrate the New Year on Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)

FILE – Confetti falls over attendees in Times Square during New Year’s Eve celebration, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)