Best photos of the week: from Argentina triumph to Santa paddle-boarding

Striking pictures from around the world

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  Kaylee McKeown of Australia at the 2022 Fina World Short Course Swimming Championships in Melbourne, Australia. Getty Images

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  Clothes put out to dry on the banks of the River Yamuna seen from a railway bridge near Agra, India. AP

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  Piotr Zyla of Poland at the men's FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Engelberg, Switzerland. EPA

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  Argentina fans celebrate in Madrid during the World Cup final between Argentina and France in Qatar. AP

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  A vigil honouring Iranians killed by their government at the National Mall in Washington. AP

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  Lightning over Tirana, Albania. Reuters

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  Gondoliers dressed as Father Christmas during a Christmas regatta on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. Reuters

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  The face of Lionel Messi projected on to the obelisk in central Buenos Aires as fans celebrate Argentina's World Cup victory. AP

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  The Thai warship HTMS Sukhotha before sinking in the Gulf of Thailand. At least 31 Royal Thai Navy personnel were reported missing after the vessel floundered. AFP

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  Sikh boys take a selfie at a turban-tying event at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. AFP

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  A social worker protests in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, against a new government human resource policy. EPA

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  Forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun arranges the skeletal remains of drugs war victims for autopsy in a laboratory in Manila. AFP

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  Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. AFP

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  Protesters in Khartoum mark the fourth anniversary of the start of the uprising that ousted autocrat Omar Al Bashir in April 2019. AFP

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  The Year of the Rabbit is approaching, as the Seoul Lantern Festival in the South Korean capital's Gwanghwamun Square makes clear. AFP

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  A man rowing on Dal Lake on a cold morning in Srinagar. EPA

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  A woman dressed as Santa Claus paddleboards off Mare e Sole beach on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica. AFP

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  Destruction in the village of Bohorodychne, in eastern Ukraine. AFP

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  Muizenberg beach in Cape Town, South Africa. EPA

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  Flooding in Matangkuli, Indonesia. AFP

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  A motorbike ambulance, a two-wheeler with a sidecar, on its way to a pregnant woman in the remote village of Kodoli, in India's Chhattisgarh state. AP Photo

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  Thousands of penguins on Desolation Island, part of the Crozet Islands in the southern Indian Ocean. AFP

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  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses a joint meeting of Congress in Washington. AP

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  Indian Navy soldiers rehearse for a republic day parade in New Delhi. AP

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  Red lanterns for New Year's Day in Danzhai, China. AFP

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  Firefighters on the way to extinguish a blaze at a hydrocarbon storage area of Bravo Petroleum company in Barranquilla, Colombia. Reuters

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  Russian Communist party supporters on the way to lay flowers at the tomb of Joseph Stalin, marking the 143rd anniversary of his birth, in Red Square, Moscow. AFP

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  Winter solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, near Amesbury, southern England. Reuters

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  A man in the entrance of a mudhif reed house in the southern Chibayish marshes of Dhi Qar province, Iraq. AFP

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  Birds over the dried-up Lake Penuelas in Valparaiso, Chile. AP

More from The National:

Friday's best photos: from Biden among Christmas trees to winter solstice at Stonehenge

Thursday's best photos: from nuns in the Vatican to Zelenskyy in Congress

Wednesday's best photos: from penguins in the Antarctic to Santa in Corsica

Tuesday's best photos: from vast snow sculptures to ferocious waves

Monday's best photos: from Sikhs at the Golden Temple to football fans in Buenos Aires

Sunday's best photos: from the World Cup final to Santas on gondolas in Venice

Saturday's best photos: from ski jumping in Switzerland to lightning in Albania