North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the launch of a Hwasong-12 missile in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on September 16, 2017. The government of North Korea continued to rapidly develop its missile and nuclear weapons capabilities throughout the year, launching nearly two dozen missile tests, despite continued international condemnations and sanctions. On November 29, a Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile was launched, flying higher and farther than any test to date. #

Rescue personnel help Hersey Kirk into a restraint as a rescue helicopter hovers in the distance after she was rescued from her home flooded by Hurricane Harvey in Rose City, Texas, on August 31, 2017. #

Ammar Hammasho, a refugee from Syria who now lives in Cyprus, kisses his children who arrived at the refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia, outside Nicosia, Cyprus, on September 10, 2017. After more than a year of separation, Hammasho was finally, though briefly, reunited with his wife and four children through a chain link fence topped with barbed wire in Cyprus. Falling to his knees, Hammasho, who is from the war-battered city of Idlib, kissed each of his three eldest children through the three-meter-high barrier encircling a migrant reception center. "The policeman told me to wait half an hour to finish the count. I couldn't wait. I saw the kids through the fence and I did this," he said, waving his hands over his head. "The kids ran over. I just wanted to see them, for my heart to go back into its place," the 34-year-old construction worker told Reuters. The reunion came on Sunday, just hours after Hammasho's wife and their children aged 7, 5, 4, and 18 months came ashore with 300 other Syrians in north-western Cyprus after a 24-hour trip on a small boat from Mersin in Turkey, in what was one of the largest mass landings on the island since the Syrian war began. Hammasho knew his family was trying to leave Syria, but didn't know precisely when. "When I read on the internet that about 250 were heading to Cyprus I knew it was them," he said with a broad smile. #

The Visions in Motion dance group prepares to march down Eastern Parkway for the West Indian American Day Parade in celebration of the Caribbean Carnival on September 4, 2017, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. #

Cassini science team members Nora Alonge (right), Scott Edgington (center), and Jo Pitesky (left) hug as the final loss of signal from the Cassini spacecraft is confirmed, indicating Cassini's destruction in Saturn's atmosphere and the end of Cassini's 20-year mission to gain a better understanding of the ringed planet and its icy moons, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on September 15, 2017 . Within moments of loss of signal, the spacecraft plunged into Saturn's atmosphere where it burned up and disappeared in what NASA called "The Grand Finale." #

Rescue workers search for people trapped inside a collapsed building in the Del Valle area of Mexico City, on September 20, 2017. Mexicans across the city were digging through collapsed buildings, trying to save people trapped in debris under schools, homes, and businesses, toppled by a 7.1 earthquake that killed more than 350 people. #

Thousands of protesters gather outside the Catalan region's Ministry of Economy and Knowledge building during a raid by Spanish police on government offices in Barcelona, Spain, on September 20, 2017. #

Members of the New England Patriots kneel during the national anthem before a game against the Houston Texans at Gillette Stadium on September 24, 2017, in Foxboro, Massachusetts. #

Damaged homes, downed trees, and standing trees stripped of their leaves sit atop hills near Corozal, Puerto Rico, on September 25, 2017, in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The Category 4 storm hit with 155 mph winds, and crossed the entire island. The official government death toll from Maria's impact has climbed to 58. #

People stop off a highway near a mobile phone antenna tower to try to get a signal after the area was hit by Hurricane Maria in Dorado, Puerto Rico, on September 25, 2017. The island's already-stressed electric grid was enormously damaged by the storm, and as of early December, two months later, only about 65 percent of the power has been restored, with authorities cautioning that it may take several more months to reach 95 percent. #

A member of the Syrian Democratic Forces walks through debris in the old city center on the eastern front line of Raqqa, Syria, on September 25, 2017. Syrian fighters, backed by U.S. special forces, were battling to clear the last remaining ISIS fighters holed up in their crumbling stronghold of Raqqa. #

Marine Corps veteran Sergeant. Michael Nicholson makes a putt during the Invictus Games 2017 at St. George's Golf and Country Club on September 26, 2017, in Toronto, Canada. The Invictus Games is an international competition organized for wounded and injured veterans, established by Prince Harry in 2014. #

Brazilian army military police patrol an alley in the Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on September 25, 2017. Shootouts had erupted in several areas of Rio on September 22, prompting Brazilian authorities to shut roads, close schools, and ask for the army to intervene. #

United States Army veteran Marvin L. Boatright kneels with a folded U.S. flag as the motorcade of President Donald Trump passes him after an event at the state fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Indiana, on September 27, 2017. The act was one of protest, spelled out in an interview with Boatright, who was upset with the President's remarks about protesting NFL players. #

A man lays on top of a woman as others flee the Route 91 Harvest country music festival grounds after an active shooter was reported on October 1, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The shooter, Stephen Paddock, opened fire on fans attending a concert across the street from his hotel. He fired more than 1,000 bullets from the windows in a span of 10 minutes, killing 58 people and injuring another 546 before police entered his hotel room to discover him dead on the floor. The photographer at this scene witnessed this man help the woman up and they walked away, injuries unknown. #

President Donald Trump tosses paper towels into a crowd as he hands out supplies at Calvary Chapel in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, on October 3, 2017. Trump was in Puerto Rico to survey hurricane damage. #

Former Equifax CEO Richard Smith (center) prepares to testify before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, on October 4, 2017, in Washington, D.C. He is shadowed by a protester in the audience dressed as the Monopoly Man, or "Rich Uncle Pennybags." Smith stepped down as CEO of Equifax after it was reported that hackers broke into the credit reporting agency and made off with the personal information of nearly 145 million Americans. #

Somalis remove the body of a man killed in a blast in the capital city of Mogadishu, Somalia, on October 14, 2017. Huge explosions from a pair of truck bombs killed at least 510 people and injured more than 300. The attack was the deadliest in Somalia's history, and has shaken and angered thousands across the country, in some cases leading to an urgent and growing sense of unity and solidarity. #

An aerial view shows three uprooted trees along a road near Hildesheim, Germany, on October 6, 2017. High winds knocked over trees and caused widespread travel chaos in northern Germany. #

A truck burns as fire ravages the Napa wine region on October 9, 2017. This year was one of California's worst fire seasons ever. State and federal figures listed 8,750 fires that burned more than one million acres combined since January 1. #

A woman cries as she looks at her house in Raqqa on October 20, 2017, after a Kurdish-led force expelled ISIS from the northern Syrian city. For three years, Raqqa saw some of the worst abuses of ISIS rule and grew into one of its main governance hubs, a center for both its potent propaganda machine and its unprecedented experiment in jihadist statehood. #

This color-enhanced image of a massive, raging storm in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during its ninth close flyby of the gas giant planet. The image was taken on October 24, 2017. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 6,281 miles (10,108 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of Jupiter. The storm is rotating counter-clockwise with a wide range of cloud altitudes. The darker clouds are expected to be deeper in the atmosphere than the brightest clouds. Within some of the bright “arms” of this storm, smaller clouds and banks of clouds can be seen, some of which are casting shadows to the right side of this picture (sunlight is coming from the left). The bright clouds and their shadows range from approximately four to eight miles (seven to 12 kilometers) in both width and length. #

Myeshia Johnson, wife of United States Army Sergeant La David Johnson, who was among four special forces soldiers killed in Niger, kisses his coffin at a graveside service in Hollywood, Florida, on October 21, 2017. #

The funeral urn of the late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej is transported up a ramp into the royal crematorium as officials watch during his elaborate funeral procession in Bangkok on October 26, 2017. #

Samantha Hanahentzen, 17, poses for a #MeToo portrait in Detroit, Michigan, on October 29, 2017. Hanahentzen said: "When I saw the #MeToo hashtag I was just coming to terms with my sexual assault. It happened when I was in middle school by one of my teachers. It took me a while to come forward with what had happened to me and then when I went to the administration I was told I didn't have enough evidence to prove anything and I should just keep quiet about it because I and the school could be sued for slander if I went public with my experience. It was really silencing because when I was being assaulted it was that stereotypical line of 'let's keep this between me and you.' And then when I found the courage to come out with out I was told again 'let's keep this quiet.' So for me too, it was a way to have a voice and it was a way for me to see that I'm not the only one that has gone through this and that women all around the world have all experienced the same thing. It was really unifying." #

Authorities stand near a damaged Home Depot pickup truck after its driver drove onto a bike path near the World Trade Center memorial in New York, striking and killing eight people on October 31, 2017. The FBI says that the driver, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, a 29-year-old Uzbekistan native now residing in New Jersey, claimed he was inspired by ISIS videos to carry out an attack against civilians. Saipov is in custody, and is now awaiting trial. #

Prima ballerina Deborah Ribeiro, soloist of Rio de Janeiro's Municipal Theatre, performs during a protest by the theater's artists against both not receiving their salaries and the economic crisis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 31, 2017. #

Photographers help a Rohingya refugee climb out of the Nad River as they cross the Burma-Bangladesh border in Palong Khali, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on November 1, 2017. On this day, Reuters photographers Hannah McKay and Adnan Abidi found themselves in front of hundreds of refugees struggling to cross the river. Mckay: "There was no end to the people. And we were just photographing everyone coming towards us. Then this woman appeared. She got to the point where she needed to get up to the footpath where we were. But she was just exhausted. She didn't have anything left to get herself up. Two refugee men on her level were trying to push her up, which was when we reached out to help. Another Reuters photographer, Adnan Abidi, took a hand. Another photographer took another and I got her leg when she got within range. It was a case of dragging her. She lay there for a few minutes and then I have no idea what happened to her. There were so many people around and it was chaos." #

Hosne Ara, a 4-year-old Rohingya refugee who fled Myanmar two months ago, listens to children singing at a children's center in the Kutupalong refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on November 5, 2017. #

People pray in the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, where 26 people were killed in a shooting attack a week earlier. The church was opened to the public as a memorial to those killed in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on November 12, 2017. On November 5, Devin Patrick Kelley entered the church during a regular Sunday service and fired a semi-automatic rifle, killing 26 people and injuring another 20. Kelley was then shot and injured by a bystander as he left the scene, later losing control of his vehicle and taking his own life. #

Smoke rises following an airstrike on the rebel-held besieged town of Harasta, in the Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, on November 15, 2017. #

Zimbabwe's members of parliament celebrate after the announcement of Robert Mugabe's resignation on November 21, 2017, in Harare, Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Mudenda, announced the resignation, reading a letter aloud to a special joint session of the assembly, which had convened to impeach Mugabe. #

Leaves cover the face of 11-month-old Rohingya refugee Abdul Aziz, after his body was brought back to the family shelter, at the Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, a few hours after he died on December 4, 2017. Aziz, whose family fled Myanmar two months ago, died at local clinic after suffering from high fever and severe cough for ten days, his mother said. #

A view from an orbit of smoke rising from wind-driven Southern California wildfires, seen from the International Space Station by astronaut Randy Bresnik on December 6, 2017. #