A police officer stands guard in front of R. Kelly's recording studio in the West Loop as city inspectors go through the property on January 16th, 2019, in Chicago, Illinois.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

A woman reacts after being rescued from the Dusit Hotel on January 15th, 2019, in Nairobi, Kenya.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Angry protesters barricaded roads with burning tires and rocks after the government more than doubled the price of fuel in a bid to improve supplies as the country battles its worst gasoline shortage in a decade.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Pope Francis speaks from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter's Square in the Vatican on January 13th, 2019.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Exceptionally high levels of snow have closed roads and ski resorts, triggered avalanches, and cut off villages across southern Germany and much of Austria.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Passengers wait in a Transportation Security Administration line at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 9th, 2019, in New York City.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi holds a press conference with former Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and Representative Mike Thompson (D-California) to introduce legislation expanding background checks for gun sales at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on January 8th, 2019.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

As a trial begins to try to protect Haitian immigrants under Temporary Protected Status from being deported back to Haiti, people demonstrate in front of the Eastern District of New York Federal Courthouse in downtown Brooklyn.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

A young boy rides his electric scooter in the rain in Hanoi, Vietnam, on January 7th, 2019.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Clashes broke out in southern India for a second day on January 3rd as Hindu hardliners went on a rampage, seeking to enforce a general shutdown in protest over two women entering Sabarimala Ayyapa.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Security forces fire tear gas into a crowd of supporters of Madagascan presidential candidate Marc Ravalomanana, breaking up a demonstration against the country's election results on January 2nd, 2019, in Antananarivo.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Polar Bear Club swimmers make their annual icy plunge into the Atlantic Ocean on New Year's Day at Coney Island in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Crowds of people pack the streets as they leave McMahons Point after viewing the midnight fireworks display on New Year's Eve in Sydney, Australia.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

A picture taken on May 15th, 2018, shows the Russian supersonic plane Tu-144 on display in the city of Kazan.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

A view of Messina on December 28th, 1908, shortly after the terrible earthquake that destroyed two-thirds of the Italian town. There were 126,000 victims, more than 66,000 from the town itself.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Visitors stand on a suspended bridge to take a closer look at paintings by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

A Venezuelan migrant rests next to a Christmas tree at an improvised camp near a bus terminal in Bogota, Colombia.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Shoppers purchase sweets from a stall at the Manchester Christmas Market on November 9th, 2018.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Two men carry freshly cut conifers to be used as Christmas trees at the Gut Kuehren plantation in Kuehren near Kiel, northern Germany.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Supporters of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Union for Democracy and Social Progress party demonstrate outside the party headquarters in Kinshasa on December 20th, 2018, to protest against the postponed elections.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Envy Silva, whose family is originally from Guatemala, holds a holiday toy she received from immigration activists across the street from the Miramar Immigration and Customs Enforcement Facility in South Florida.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Portraits of Venezuelan migrants and refugees are displayed in Bogota, Colombia, as part of worldwide demonstrations in support of dignity for migrants for International Migrants Day on December 18th, 2018.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

A surfer rides a wave at the famous Mavericks surf break on December 17th, 2018, in Half Moon Bay, California. A giant swell brought waves of up to 50 feet high to Northern California.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Turkish-backed Syrian fighters train in a camp in the Aleppo countryside of northern Syria on December 16th, 2018.

• By Pacific Standard Staff