The Week in Pictures: Santa's feline helpers and East Coast blizzard

Linda Marzell clears a sidewalk after a heavy snowfall in Binghamton, N.Y., on Dec. 17, 2020.

Large parts of the eastern United States woke Thursday to more than 3 feet of snow as a major winter storm hit parts of New York and Pennsylvania, led to hundreds of car accidents and is suspected in the deaths of at least seven people.

By morning, more than 40 inches had fallen in the New York cities of Binghamton and Endicott and in Litchfield, Pa.

Tourists walk through beach foam in the wake of cyclonic conditions at Currumbin Beach after wild weather lashed Australia's Northern New South Wales and South East Queensland with heavy rain, strong winds and king tides on Dec. 15.

Joan Burgess receives the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at a drive-thru Covid-19 vaccination center in Manchester, England on Dec. 17.

Britain's rollout of the vaccine is the start of the biggest and most challenging vaccination program in the history of the publicly funded National Health Service.

From Wuhan to Coventry: Tracking the coronavirus in pictures

Electoral College elector Robin Smith, left, and others clap after casting their votes for president of the United States at the state Capitol in Lansing, Mich., on Dec. 14.

All 50 states had already certified their election results ensuring that Joe Biden will be the 46th president, but the Electoral College vote makes the result official.

Demonstrators aid a Trump supporter who was beaten by counter-protesters in Olympia, Wash., on Dec. 12.

One person was shot in Olympia as demonstrators clashed with counterprotesters over the presidential election, racial injustice and pandemic restrictions.

President Donald Trump joins West Point cadets during the Army-Navy football game at Michie Stadium in West Point, N.Y, on Dec. 12.

Trump did not wear a mask for some time while standing closely to West Point cadets and Naval Academy midshipmen — all of whom wore masks. 

A crescent moon shines in the night sky above Saturn, upper right, and Jupiter, lower right, in Antalya, Turkey on Dec. 17.

The Great Conjunction of 2020 will brighten the darkest day of the year on Dec. 21 as the two giant planets of our solar system draw closer together in the night sky than they have been in centuries.

Eric Del Valle, left, and Christian Amoroso from Empress EMS transport a woman, 77, with Covid-19 symptoms to a hospital in Yonkers, N.Y, on Dec. 17.

A volunteer undergoes a screening for the coronavirus to see if he can join a pool of around 500 people allowed into a concert in Barcelona, Spain, on Dec. 12.

Two children walk past 200,000 lights that decorate a winter wonderland in Stockbridge, Mass., on Dec. 13.

An employee in a Santa Claus costume plays with cats at the Catgarden in Seoul, South Korea, on Dec. 14. 

Car headlights illuminate a woman walking through city streets as snow accumulates in Wilkes Barre, Pa., on Dec. 16.

An empty dormitory on Dec. 15 after gunmen abducted students at a school in Kankara, Katsina state, Nigeria. 

Dozens of kidnapped school boys arrived back home on Dec. 18, a day after security forces rescued them in northwest Nigeria.

Gunmen raided the school on Dec. 11 and marched around 350 of them into the vast Rugu forest. It was not clear if all of them had been recovered in the rescue operation.

A man wearing a protective mask points his guns outside the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York on Dec. 13.

The man, who opened fire outside the cathedral after Christmas carolers finished a concert, was killed by police. 

Models wear creations by Guinea Bisau designer Bibas during an outdoor show for Dakar Fashion Week just outside Dakar, Senegal, on Dec. 12.

With Senegal's low incidence of Covid-19, Dakar's marquee fashion event looked markedly more normal than its counterparts in other global capitals, whose fashion weeks were heavily curtailed or canceled.

Fog covers the valley in Assisi, Italy, at sunset on Dec 11.

Last week's gallery: A whale in New York and an Afghanistan homecoming